PR 2823 
.P2 W5 
Copy 1 



Issued Semi-Monthly 
September to June 



Number 106 



December 16, 1896 



>R 2823 
.A2 W5 
Copy 1 





MACBETH 



BY 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 



EDITED BY RICHARD GRANT 

WHITE, AND FURNISHED 

WITH ADDITIONAL 

NOTES BY, 
HELEN GRAY CONE 



HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY 
BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO 

<£he firocrpi&c prc?s, Cambridge 



Entered at the Po°t Office, Boston. Masa., as second-class matter 




Single Numbers FIFTEEN CENTS 
Double Numbers THIRTY CENTS 



Triple Numbers FORTY-FIVE CENTS 
Quad-uple Numbers FIFTY CENTS 
Yearly Subscription $5.00 



Ctye aatfceristtie literature Series. 

With Introductions, Notes, Historical Sketches, and Biographical Sketches 
Each regular single number, paper, 15 cents. 

1. Longfellow's Evangeline.* tt 

2. Longfellow's Courtsnip of Miles Standish ; Elizabeth.* 

3. Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish. Dramatized. 

4. Whittier's Snow-Bound, and Other Poems.* f £ ** 

5. Whittier's Mabel Martin, and Other Poems.** 

6. Holmes's Grandmother's Story or' Bunker Hill Battle, etc ** 

7. 8, 9. Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair : True Stories from New 

England History. 1G20-1S03. In three parts. U 

10. Hawthorne's Biographical Stories. With Questions.** 

11. Longfellow's Children's Hour, and Other Selections.** 

12. Studies in Longfellow. Thirty-two Topics for Study. 

13. 14. Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha. In two parts.j 

15. Lowell's Under the Old Elm, and Other Poems.** 

16. Bayard Taylor's Lars : a Pastoral of Norway ; and Other Poems. 

17. 18. Hawthorne's Wonder-Book, In two parts.J: 

li), 20. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. In two parts.J: 

21. Benjamin Franklin's Poor Bichard's Almanac, etc. 

22, 23. Hawthorne's Tanglewood Tales. In two parts.J 

24. Washington's Rules of Conduct, Letters and Addresses.* 

25, 20. Longfellow's Golden Legend. In two parts.J 

27. Thoreau's Succession of Forest Trees, Sounds, and Wild Apples. 

With a Biographical Sketch by R. W. Emerson. 

28. John Burroughs's Birds and Bees.** 

29. Hawthorne's Little Daffydowndilly, and Other Stories.** 

30. Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal, and Other Pieces. ££ ** 

31. Holmes's My Hunt after the Captain, and Other Papers.* 

32. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech, and Other Papers. 

33. 34, 35. Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn. In three parts. ft 

36. John Burroughs's Sharp Eyes, and Other Papers.** 

37. Charles Dudley "Warner's A-Hunting of the Deer, etc.* 

38. Longfellow's Building of the Ship, and Other Poems. 

39. Lowell's Books and Libraries, and Other Papers. 

40. Hawthorne's Tales of the White Hills, and Sketches.** 

41. Whittier's Tent on the Beach, and Associated Poems. 

42. Emerson's Fortune of the Bepublic, and Other Essays, including 

the American Scholar. 

43. Ulysses among the Phseacians. From W. C Bryant^s Translation 

of rlomer'8 OJyssey. 

44. Edge worth's Waste Not, Want Not ; and The Barring Out. 

45. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. 

46. Old Testament Stories in Scripture Language. 

47. 48. Fables and Folk Stories. In two parts, t 
49, 50. Hans Andersen's Stories. In two parts, t 

51, 52. Washington Irving : Essays from the Sketch Book. [51.] Rip 
Van Winkle, and other American Essays. [52.] The Voyage, and other English- 
Essays. In two parts. J 

53. Scott's Lady of the Lake. Edited by W. J. Rolfe. With copious 
notes and numerous illustrations, (Double Number, 30 cents. Also, in Rolfe" 1 *. 
Students' 1 Series, cloth, to Teachers, 53 cents.) 

Also, liound in linen : * 25 cents. ** 29 and 10 in one vol., 40 cents : likewise 28 
and 38, 4 and 5, 6 and SI, 15 and 30, 40 and 69, 11 and 63. % Also in one vol., 40 cents. 
tt 1, 4, and 30 also in one vol., 50 cents ; likewise 7, 8, and 9 ; 3a, 34, and 35. 



SDlje tttoersioe ILittrature £>e vita 



MACBETH 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 



FROM THE RIVERSIDE EDITION EDITED BY 
RICHARD GRANT WHITE 



WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES 



BY 

HELEN GRAY CONE 




, HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 



Boston : 4 Park Street ; New York : 11 East Seventeenth Street 
Chicago : 158 Adams Street 



• An, wr 



Copyright, 1883 and 1897, 
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

All rights reserved. 



/Z- 3 ff\T3 / 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., IT. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton and Company. 



NOTE. 

The plan adopted in this edition is the same as that followed 
in As You Like It in this series, Number 93. Mr. White's text 
and apparatus have been used, and the necessary additions en- 
closed in brackets. In the Suggestions for Special Study, the 
intention has been to point out the most profitable lines of in- 
vestigation, and to assist the student in forming a clear and 
consistent notion of the characters. Reference has been made 
to Professor Dowden's Shakspere : His Mind and Art, and to 
Professor Corson's Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare. 
These works are earnestly commended to the student. All other 
quotations are from the Furness Variorum Macbeth. To Dr. 
Furness every lover of Shakespeare must heartily profess, 
" More is thy due than more than all can pay." 



INTRODUCTION. 

For the incidents of this grand tragedy Shakespeare went to 
Holinshed's Chronicles, in which he found all of them, with the 
principal personages and their traits of character. His part of 
the work was the weaving of two stories of ambition and blood 
into one, and the decoration of the composite whole with his 
matchless dramatic and poetic style. As dramatist never, and 
as poet rarely, does he rise above the grandeur and the power 
of the second act of this tragedy, in which, for a time that tries 
our endurance with the strain, he stands working with steady 
nerve and even hand upon the dizzy apex of sublimest terror. 
Macbeth, plainly the product of its author's vigorous maturity, 
yet contains a few passages which are thin in thought and weak 
in words, and which are not in Shakespeare's style. George 
Steevens's discovery, in 1779, of Middleton's play, The Witch, in 
manuscript, helps us here. For in that are found the songs 
beginning " Come away " and " Black spirits," which the folio 
briefly directs to be sung in this. A comparison of the two in- 
dicates the probability that Macbeth was produced thus. Not 
very long after James I.'s accession to the throne of England 
(in 1604), it was thought desirable to produce a play on a Scotch 
subject ; and this had to be done in haste. The story of Mac- 
beth was selected. Shakespeare perhaps sketched the tragedy, 
and certainly wrote most of it himself ; but he was helped in 
some of the least important parts, particularly in the witches' 
scenes, by Thomas Middleton, an inferior and younger dramatist, 
who may have already written the supernatural scenes in his 
Witch, and may also have been the original projector of this 
play, which Shakespeare took out of his hands ; leaving him 
most of his supernatural business to work up afterwards into 
his own Witch. This supposition affects only about 170 lines, 
mostly short, and many consisting of but two words. We hear 
of Macbeth in 1610, and not as an old play. Shakespeare's work 
on it, therefore, was done between 1605 and 1609. It was first 
printed in the folio of 1623, with not a few important mutila- 
tions. Its action covers a period of fifteen years, — from A. D. 
1039 to 1054. [On the genuineness of the text, the relation of 
the play to history, and the duration of the action, see, further, 
Suggestions for Special Study. .] 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 



-noblemen of Scotland. 



Duncan, King of Scotland. 
Malcolm, ) ... ., 

DONALBAIN, J hU 30nS - 

Banqu™' } generals of the King's army. 

Macduff, 

Lennox, 

Ross, 

Menteith, 

Angus, 

Caithness, 

Fleance, son to Banquo. 

Siward, Earl of Northumberland, gen 

eral of the English forces. 
Young Siward, his son. 
Seyton, an officer attending on Mac 

beth. 
Boy, son to Macduff. 



An English Doctor. 
A Scotch Doctor. 
A Soldier. 
A Porter. 
An Old Man. 

Lady Macbeth. 
Lady Macduff. 

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Mac- 
beth. 

Hecate. 
Three Witches. 
Apparitions. 

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, 
Murderers, Attendants, and Messen- 
gers. 



Scene : Scotland ; England. 



MACBETH. 



ACT I. 



Scene I. A desert place. 
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again 
In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? 

Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly 's done, 
When the battle 's lost and won. 

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 

First Witch. Where the place ? 

Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. 

Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 

First Witch. I come, GraymalkinJ 

Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. 

Third Witch. Anon. 10 

All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair ; 
Hover through the fog and filthy air. [Exeunt. 

8. G-raymalkin : name of the typical female cat, as Reynard 
for fox. 

9. Paddock = toad. [The witches respond to the summons of 
their familiar spirits, accustomed to take the forms of cat and 
toad.] 

10. [Anon = presently ; here, " I am coming at once."] 



8 MACBETH. [Act I. 

Scene II. A camp near Forres. 

Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with 
Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant. 

Dun. What bloody man is that ? He can report, 
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 
The newest state. 

Mai. This is the sergeant 

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend ! 
Say to the King the knowledge of the broil 
As thou didst leave it. 

Ser. Doubtful it stood ; 

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together 
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — 
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that 10 

The multiplying villanies of nature 
Do swarm upon him — from the western isles 
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied ; 
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 
Show'd like a rebel's whore : but all 's too weak : 
For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name — 
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel, 
Which smok'd with bloody execution, 
Like valour's minion carved out his passage 
Till he faced the slave ; 20 

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, 
And fix'd his head upon our battlements. 

Dun. O valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! 

13. kerns and gallowglasses. Kerns were light-armed 
troops ; gallowglasses wore mail, and used long heavy swords. 

21. Which ne'er shook hands : a passage incurably cor- 
rupted. If these words were omitted, as they might well be, 
both sense and rhythm would be complete. 



Scene II.] MA CBE TH. 9 

Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break, 
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come 
Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark : 
No sooner justice had with valour arm'd 
Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, so 
But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, 
With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men 
Began a fresh assault. 

Dun. Dismay'd not this 

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? 

Ser. Yes ; 

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 
If I say sooth, I must report they were 
As cannons overcharged with double cracks ; so they 
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe : 
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 
Or memorize another Golgotha, 40 

I cannot tell. 
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. 

Dim. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; 
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. 

[Exit Sergeant, attended. 

Who comes here ? 

Enter Ross. 
Mai. The worthy thane of Ross. 

37. cracks = loads, charges which when discharged make a 
noise, or crack. 

40. [Memorize another G-olgotha = make memorable an- 
other place of death, like the Golgotha of the crucifixion.] 

41. [I cannot tell = I do not know what to think, or say, of 
it : an Elizabethan colloquialism.] 

45. thane = a servant of the king : an Anglo-Saxon title of 
nobility next below that of earl. 



10 MACBETH. [Act I. 

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So 
should he look 
That seems to speak things strange. 

Ross. God save the King ! 

Dun. Whence cam'st thou, worthy thane ? 

Ross. From Fife, great king ; 

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
And fan our people cold. Norway himself, so 

With terrible numbers, 
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict ; 
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, 
Confronted him with self -comparisons, 
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, 
Curbing his lavish spirit : and, to conclude, 
The victory fell on us. 

Dun. Great happiness ! 

Ross. That now 

Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; 
Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60 

Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch 
Ten thousand dollars to our general use. 

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 
Our bosom interest : go pronounce his present death, 
And with his former title greet Macbeth. 

Ross. I '11 see it done. 

Dun. What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. 

[Exeunt. 

54. [Bellona's bridegroom : Macbeth is evidently meant. 
The mythological allusion is faulty, unless the expression be 
taken as equivalent to " a very bridegroom for Bellona, a hero 
worthy to wed her."] 

55. [self-comparisons = likenesses of himself, counterparts; 
the meaning is brought out in the next line.] 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 11 

Scene III. A heath near Forres. 
Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? 

Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 

Third Witch. Sister, where thou ? 

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her 
lap, 
And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd : — " Give 

me," quoth I ; 
" Aroint thee, witch ! " the rump-fed ronyon cries. 
Her husband 's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : 
But in a sieve I '11 thither sail, 
And, like a rat without a tail, 
I '11 do, I '11 do, and I '11 do. io 

Sec. Witch. I '11 give thee a wind. 

First Witch. Thou 'rt kind. 

Third Witch. And I another. 

First Witch. I myself have all the other, 
And the very ports they blow, 
All the quarters that they know 
I' th' shipman's card. 
I will drain him dry as hay : 
Sleep shall neither night nor day 
Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 20 

6. Aroint = (manifestly) avaunt, begone ; but what the word 
really means, and whence it came, no one knows. See it again, 
King Lear, Act III. Sc. 4, line 149, but nowhere else, I believe, 
in all English literature, rump-fed = coarsely, grossly fed ; 
ronyon is plainly an Eng. form of the Fr. rognon = a scabby, 
mangy person. 

9. [Steevens cites the old superstition, that " though a witch 
could assume the form of any animal she pleased, the tail would 
still be wanting."] 

17. shipman's card — sailor's chart. 



12 MACBETH. [ActI. 

He shall live a man forbid : 
Weary se'imights nine times nine 
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine : 
Though his bark cannot be lost, 
Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 
Look what I have. 

Sec. Witch. Show me, show me. 

First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, 
Wreck'd as homeward he did come. [Drums within. 

Third Witch. A drum, a drum ! so 

Macbeth doth come. 

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, 
Posters of the sea and land, 
Thus do go about, about : 
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine 
And thrice again, to make up nine. 
Peace ! the charm 's wound up. 

Enter Macbeth and Banquo. 

Macb. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. 

Ban. How far is 't call'd to Forres? What are 
these 
So wither'd and so wild in their attire, 40 

That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' earth, 
And yet are on 't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
That man may question ? You seem to understand 

me, 
By each at once her chappy finger laying 
Upon her skinny lips : you should be women, 

32. The weird sisters = supposed supernatural creatures 
like the Fates, controlling destiny. Their name is pronounced 
wayrd (ei as in weight), and is spelled weyward in the folio. 

39. Forres = a town on Moray Firth, about twenty-five miles 
from Inverness. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 13 

And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 
That you are so. 

Macb. Speak, if you can : what are you ? 

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane 
of Glamis ! 

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane 
of Cawdor ! 

Tliird Witch. All hail, Macbeth that shalt be king 
hereafter ! 50 

Ban. Good sir, why do you start ; and seem to fear 
Things that do sound so fair? \_To the Witches.'] 

I' th' name of truth, 
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
You greet with present grace and great prediction 
Of noble having and of royal hope, 
That he seems rapt withal : to me you speak not. 
If you can look into the seeds of time, 
And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60 

Your favours nor your hate. 

First Witch. Hail! 

Sec. Witch. Hail! 

Third Witch. Hail! 

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 

Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 

Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou 
be none : 
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! 

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me 
more : 70 

48. All hail. These three salutations are almost literal tran- 
scripts from Holinshed. 



14 MACBETH. [ActI. 

By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis ; 

But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives, 

A prosperous gentleman ; and to be king 

Stands not within the prospect of belief, 

No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 

You owe this strange intelligence ? or why 

Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 

With such prophetic greeting ? Speak, I charge you. 

[ Witches vanish. 

Ban. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 
And these are of them. Whither are they van- 
ish'd ? 80 

Macb. Into the air; and what seem'd corporal 
melted 
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd ! 
Ban. Were such things here as we do speak 
about ? 
Or have we eaten on the insane root 
That takes the reason prisoner? 

Macb. Your children shall be kings. 
Ban. You shall be king. 

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ? 
Ban. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's 
here? 

Enter Ross and Angus. 
Boss. The King hath happily received, Macbeth, 
The news of thy success ; and when he reads 90 

Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, 
His wonders and his praises do contend 

71. Sinel was the name of Macbeth's father. 

84. eaten on = eaten of. insane root = root which makes 
insanity ; henbane, or perhaps hemlock, if we must read like 
herb doctors. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 15 

Which should be thine or his : silenced with that, 
In viewing o'er the rest o' th' selfsame day, 
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 
Strange images of death. As thick as tale 
Came post with post ; and every one did bear 
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, 
And pour'd them down before him. 

Ang. We are sent 100 

To give thee from our royal master thanks ; 
Only to herald thee into his sight, 
Not pay thee. 

Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, 
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor : 
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! 
For it is thine. 

Ban. [ Aside.] What, can the Devil speak true ? 

Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives : why do you 
dress me 
In borrow'd robes ? 

Ang. Who was the thane lives yet ; 

But under heavy judgement bears that life no 

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined 
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel 
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 

97. as thick as tale = as fast as they could be told, or 
counted ; a somewhat forced comparison, but suited to the style 
of this play. The reading " As thick as hail " is obvious and 
plausible. 

106. addition = title, something added to the mere name ; "a 
handle." 

107. Devil : pronounced commonly, I am sure, in England as 
well as in Scotland, as a monosyllable, deel, in Shakespeare's 
time. 

112. line = strengthen. 



16 MACBETH. [Act I. 

He labour'd in his country's wrack, I know not ; 
But treasons capital, confess'd and proved, 
Have overthrown him. 

Macb. [Aside.'] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor! 
The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus.] 

Thanks for your pains. 
[ To Ban.] Do you not hope your children shall be 

kings, 
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 
Promised no less to them ? 

Ban. That trusted home 120 

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, 
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange : 
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 
The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's 
In deepest consequence. 
Cousins, a word, I pray you. 

Macb. [Aside.] Two truths are told, 

As happy prologues to the swelling act 
Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. 
[Aside.] This supernatural soliciting 130 

Cannot be ill, cannot be good : if ill, 
Why hath it given me earnest of success, 
Commencing in a truth ? — I 'm thane of Cawdor. 
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 
Against the use of nature ? Present fears 
Are less than horrible imasiininofs : 
My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical, 
Shakes so my single state of man that function 140 

139. [Fantastical = imaginary.] 

140-142. Shakes so . . . what is not : a passage highly 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 17 

Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 
But what is not. 

Ban. Look, how our partner 's rapt. 

Mad). [Aside.] If chance will have me king, why, 
chance may crown me, 
Without my stir. 

Ban. New honours come upon him, 

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 
But with the aid of use. 

Macb. [Aside.] Come what come may, 

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 

Macb. Give me your favour: my dull brain was 
wrought 
With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains iso 
Are register'd where every day I turn 
The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King. 
Think upon what hath chanced, and, at more time, 
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak 
Our free hearts each to other. 

Ban. Very gladly. 

Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. [Exeunt. 

characteristic of the vague, far-reaching style of this tragedy. 
Single = weak; function = ability to act, which is represented 
as smothered in doubt and apprehension; so that nothing seems 
to be but that which cannot be. 

147. Time and the hour: equivalent to "time and tide," 
in which " tide " does not mean the ebb and flow of the sea, but 
opportunity, time suitable. [The Clarendon Press editors have 
the interesting comment, " 'Time and the hour,' in the sense of 
time with its successive incidents, or in its measured course, 
forms but one idea. The expression seems to have been prover- 
bial. Another form of it is : ' Be the day weary, be the day 
long, At length it ringeth to evensong.' "] 



18 MACBETH. [ActL 

Scene IV. Forres. The palace. 

Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and 
Attendants. 

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not 
Those in commission yet return' d ? 

Mai. My liege, 

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
With one that saw him die : who did report 
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, 
Implored your highness' pardon and set forth 
A deep repentance : nothing in his life 
Became him like the leaving it ; he died 
As one that had been studied in his death 
To throw away the dearest thing he owed, 10 

As 't were a careless trifle. 

Dun. There 's no art 

To find the mind's construction in the face : 
He was a gentleman on whom I built 
An absolute trust. 

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus. 
O worthiest cousin ! 
The sin of my ingratitude even now 
Was heavy on me : thou art so far before 
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, 
That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
Might have been mine ! only I have left to say, 20 
More is thy due than more than all can pay. 

Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe, 
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part 
Is to receive our duties ; and our duties 
Are to your throne and state children and servants, 
10. owed = owned. [Compare Sc. 3, line 76.] 



Scene IV.] MA CBE TH. 1 9 

Which do but what they should, by doing every thing 
Safe toward your love and honour. 

Dun. Welcome hither: 

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour 
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, 
That hast no less deserved, nor must be known 30 

No less to have done so, let me infold thee 
And hold thee to my heart. 

Ban. There if I grow, 

The harvest is your own. 

Dun. My plenteous joys, 

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 
And you whose places are the nearest, know 
We will establish our estate upon 
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
The Prince of Cumberland ; which honour must 
Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40 

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
And bind us further to you. 

Macb. The rest is labour, which is not used for you : 
I '11 be myself the harbinger and make joyful 
The hearing of my wife with your approach ; 
So humbly take my leave. 

Dun. My worthy Cawdor ! 

Macb. [ Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland ! that 
is a step 
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 

34. ["Wanton in fulness = running to excess in their abun- 
dance.] 

39. The Prince of Cumberland. The crown of Scotland was 
not at this time strictly hereditary, and when the successor to the 
reigning king was named he was made Prince of Cumberland. 



20 MACBETH. [Act I. 

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires ; 50 

Let not light see my black and deep desires : 
The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be, 
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. 

Dim. True, worthy Banquo ; he is full so valiant, 
And in his commendations I am fed ; 
It is a banquet to me. Let 's after him, 
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : 
It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt. 

Scene V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle. 

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. 

Lady M. They met me in the day of success : and I have learned 
by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal 
knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, 
they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I 
stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the King, 
who all-hailed me " Thane of Cawdor;" by which title, before, 
these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on 
of time, with " Hail, king that shalt be ! " This have I thought 
good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou 
mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what 
greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell, n 

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor ; and shalt be 
What thou art promised : yet do I fear thy nature ; 
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness 
To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great, 
Art not without ambition, but without 

54. True, -worthy Banquo. Duncan's speech is the continua- 
tion of an unheard talk with Banquo about Macbeth while the 
latter reveals to us his awakened ambition and foreshadows the 
crime. 

Scene V. Enter Lady Macbeth. In the folio, even after 
Macbeth is king, she is called merely "the lady," or" Macbeth's 
lady " or " wife." The title generally given her, however, seems 
happily chosen. 

5. [Missives = messengers.] 



Scene V.] MACBETH. 21 

The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, 
That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 
And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou 'dst have, great 

Glamis, 
That which cries " Thus thou must do, if thou have 

it ; " 20 

And that which rather thou dost fear to do 
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, 
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear ; 
And chastise with the valour of my tongue 
All that impedes thee from the golden round, 
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem 
To have thee crown'd withal. 

Enter a Messenger. 

What is your tidings ? 

Mess. The King comes here to-night. 

Lady M. Thou 'rt mad to say it : 

Is not thy master with him ? who, were 't so, 
Would have inform'd for preparation. 30 

Mess. So please you, it is true: our thane is 
coming : 
One of my fellows had the speed of him, 
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
Than would make up his message. 

Lady M. Give him tending ; 

He brings great news. i Exit Messenger. 

The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits 
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, 
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full 
Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; *o 

17. illness = evil nature. 

26, metaphysical = moro than physical, supernatural. 



22 MACBETH. [Act I. 

Stop up the access and passage to remorse, 

That no compunctious visitings of nature 

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 

The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 

And take my milk for gall, you murth'ring ministers, 

Wherever in your sightless substances 

You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick night, 

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 

That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 50 

To cry " Hold, hold ! " 

E?iter Macbeth. 
Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor ! 
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 
Thy letters have transported me beyond 
This ignorant present, and I feel now 
The future in the instant. 

Macb. My dearest love, 

Duncan comes here to-night. 

Lady M. And when goes hence ? 

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes. 

Lady M. O, never 

Shall sun that morrow see ! 
Your face, 1113^ thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 60 

43. [Knight points out that " if fear, compassion, or any other 
compunctious visitings, stand between a cruel purpose and its 
realization, they may be said to keep peace between them, as 
one who interferes between a violent man and the object of his 
wrath keeps peace."] 

45. take my milk for gall = change my milk for gall ; 



« 



unsex me. 



54. [Feel is a dissyllable.] 

60. [The time: as Delias (quoted by Dr. Furness) has 
noted, " time with the definite article means in Shakespeare the 



Scene VI.] MACBETH. 23 

Look like the time ; bear welcome in your eye, 
Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent 

flower, 
But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming 
Must be provided for : and you shall put 
This night's great business into my dispatch ; 
Which shall to all our nights and days to come 
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 

Macb. We will speak further. 

Lady M. Only look up clear ; 

To alter favour ever is to fear : 
Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt. 



Scene VI. Before Macbeth's castle. 

Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Ban- 
quo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and Attendants. 

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
Unto our gentle senses. 

Ban. This guest of summer, 

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
By his loved masonry, that the heaven's breath 
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze, 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 

present time." Here the sense seems to be, " to beguile those 
around you at the present time, assume an appearance appro- 
priate to the present time."] 

69. [To alter favour = to change countenance. Compare As 
You Like It, Act V. Sc. 4, line 27 ; and Julius Ccesar Act I. Sc. 
2, line 91.] 

5. masonry. The martlet, or martin, builds a nest of mud 
against walls. 

7. coign of vantage : a large phrase for convenient corner. 



24 MACBETH. [Act I. 

Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
The air is delicate. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Dun. See, see, our honour'd hostess ! 10 

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 
How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, 
And thank us for your trouble. 

Lady M. All our service 

In every point twice done and then done double 
Were poor and single business to contend 
Against those honours deep and broad wherewith 
Your majesty loads our house : for those of old, 
And the late dignities heap'd up to them, 
We rest your hermits. 

Dun. Where 's the thane of Cawdor? 20 

We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose 
To be his purveyor : but he rides well ; 
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him 
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, 
We are your guest to-night. 

Lady M. Your servants ever 

Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt, 

13. God 'ild = God yield, God bless. 

16. [Single business : see Sc. 3, line 140. Mr. White else- 
where remarks that " there is a whimsical likeness and logical 
connection between this phrase and one which has lately come 
into vulgar vogue, 'a one-horse affair,' etc."] 

20. your hermits = those who pray for you. 

22. [Purveyor : here accented on the first syllable, and equiv- 
alent in meaning to " forerunner," in a general sense ; as har- 
binger is used in Sc. 4, line 45. Look up the literal meaning in 
each case.] 

26. [Have ... in compt = hold in trust, as things for 
which they are accountable.] 



Scene VII.] MACBETH. 25 

To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, 
Still to return your own. 

Dun. Give me your hand 

Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 
And shall continue our graces towards him. 30 

By your leave, hostess. [Kissing her. 



Exeunt. 



Scene VII. Corridor in Macbeth's castle. 

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants with dishes 
and service, and p ass over the stage. Then enter Macbeth. 

Macb. If it were done when 't is done, then 't were 
well. 
It were done quickly if th' assassination 
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 
With his surcease success ; that but this blow 
Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, 
We 'd jump the life to come. But in these cases 
We still have judgement here ; that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 

Scene VII. Enter a Sewer. At first a sewer was a taster, 
to insure protection against poison; afterwards a sort of head 
groom of the kitchen. 

1. [The punctuation here adopted by Mr. White is unusual, 
though there is much in its favor. The first folio has a comma 
after well, and a colon after quickly ; modern editors drop the 
comma. How does the difference in punctuation affect the 
meaning ?] 

3. [trammel up = catch and hold fast, as in a net. Trammel, 
noun, = a net.] 

4. surcease — end. [His is the usual possessive in Shake- 
speare ; the pronoun does not necessarily represent Duncan, but 
" the assassination."] 

5. [success: this may possibly mean, as Staunton suggests, 
" that which follows; " in that case, catch success would be " no 
more than an enforcement of 'trammel up the conseqiience.' " 



26 MACBETH. [Act I. 

To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 10 

Commends th' ingredients of our poison'd chalice 

To our own lips. He 's here in double trust ; 

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 

Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 

Who should against his murtherer shut the door, 

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 

So clear in his great office, that his virtues 

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 

The deep damnation of his taking-off ; 20 

And pity, like a naked new-born babe, 

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin, horsed 

Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 

That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur 

To prick the sides of my intent, but only 

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 

And falls on th' other — 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

How now ! what news ? 

Lady M. He has almost supp'd : why have you 
left the chamber ? 29 

Macb. Hath he ask'd for me ? 

13. his kinsman. Macbeth and Duncan were first cousins. 

22. cherubin : so the folio : altered in all modern editions 
to the Hebrew plural cherubim, a word not used by Shakespeare ; 
and, moreover, the singular, not the plural, form is required. 

23. [couriers of the air. Is it not possible that Shakespeare 
wrote " coursers " ? This carries out the idea in horsed. It is 
adopted by Warburton and several other editors. The folio 
reads "Curriors."] 

25. [Two metaphors jostle in lines 25-28 ; first ambition is 
a spur, then a rider. Read, temporarily, "ambition" after 
''only." and then again in its right place, and all is clear.] 



Scene VII.] MACBETH. 27 

Lady M. Know you not he has ? 

Macb. We will proceed no further in this business : 
He hath honour'd me of late ; and I have bought 
Golden opinions from all sorts of people, 
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 
Not cast aside so soon. 

Lady M. Was the hope drunk 

Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? 
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
At what it did so freely ? From this time 
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 
To be the same in thine own act and valour 40 

As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, 
And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
Letting " I dare not " wait upon " I would," 
Like the poor cat i' th' adage ? 

Macb. Prithee, peace : 

I dare do all that may become a man ; 
Who dares do more is none. 

Lady M. What beast was 't, then, 

That made you break this enterprise to me ? 
When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
And, to be more than what you were, you would so 
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 

36. [dress'd = prepared.] 

45. Like the poor cat. The adage was, " The cat would 
eat fish, and would not wet her feet." 

52. [adhere = cleave to or consist with the plan, so as to 
make its execution possible.] 

54. I have given suck. Not to Macbeth's children. The 
Lady Gruach (that was her name) was a widow when Macbeth 
married her. 



28 MACBETH. [Act I. Sc. VII. 

How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me : 
I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, 
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you 
Have done to this. 

Macb. If we should fail? 

Lady M. We fail ! 

But screw your courage to the sticking-place, 60 

And we '11 not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 
Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 
Will I with wine and wassail so convince 
That memory, the warder of the brain, 
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
A limbeck only : when in swinish sleep 
Their drenched natures lie as in a death, 
What cannot you and I perform upon 
The unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon 70 

His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt 
Of our great quell ? 

Macb. Bring forth men-children only ; 

For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two 
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, 
That they have done 't ? 

Lady M. Who dares receive it other, 

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar 
Upon his death ? 

60. [screw your courage : a metaphor presumably taken 
from the tuning of a stringed instrument, sticking-place = 
place where it will remain fixed.] 

64. convince = overcome. 

66. receipt = receptacle. 

72. quell = to put violently out of the way. Here, used as 
a noun, it is equivalent to deed of violence. 



Act II. 8c. I.] MACBETH. 29 

Macb. I am settled, and bend up 

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. so 

Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 

[Exeunt. 

ACT II. 

Scene I. Court within Macbeth's castle. 

Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before him. 

Ban. How goes the night, boy ? 

Fie. The moon is down ; I have not heard the 

clock. 
Ban. And she goes down at twelve. 
Fie. I take 't, 't is later, sir. 

Ban. Hold, take my sword. There 's husbandry 
in heaven ; 
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. 
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
And yet I would not sleep : merciful powers, 
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
Gives way to in repose ! 

Enter Macbeth and a Servant with a torch. 
Give me my sword. 
Who 's there ? 10 

Macb. A friend. 

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest ? The King 's 
a-bed : 
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 
Sent forth great largess to your offices. 
This diamond he greets your wife withal, 

4. husbandry = thrift, saving" : we still say " husband your 
means." 



30 MACBETH. [Act II. 

By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 
In measureless content. 

Mach. Being unprepared, 

Our will became the servant to defect ; 
Which else should free have wrought. 

Ban. All 's well. 

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : 20 

To you they have show'd some truth. 

Macb. I think not of them : 

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 
We would spend it in some words upon that business, 
If you would grant the time. 

Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 

Macb. If you shall cleave to my consort, when 't is, 
It shall make honour for you. 

Ban. So I lose none 

In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 
I shall be counsell'd. 

Macb. Good repose the while ! 

Bern. Thanks, sir : the like to you ! 30 

[Exeunt Banquo and Fleance. 

Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, 
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 

[Exit Servant. 
Is this a dagger which I see before me, 
The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch 

thee. 
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 

16. and shut up. This passage is quite surely corrupt, and 
probably by the loss of a line or more before these words. [The 
expression doubtless means " concluded."] 

25. my consort = those who consort with me, my party. 
[This emendation is Mr. White's. The first folio reads "con- 
sent."] 



Scene!.] MACBETH. 31 

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 

To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 

A dagger of the mind, a false creation, 

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? 

I see thee yet, in form as palpable 40 

As this which now I draw. 

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going ; 

And such an instrument I was to use. 

Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses, 

Or else worth all the rest ; I see thee still, 

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, 

Which was not so before. There 's no such thing : 

It is the bloody business which informs 

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world 

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse «o 

The curtain'd sleep ; now witchcraft celebrates 

Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murther, 

Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, 

Whose howl 's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm set earth, 

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, 

And take the present horror from the time, 59 

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives : 

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 

[A bell rings. 
I go, and it is done ; the bell invites me. 

46. dudgeon = haft, hilt ; the root of boxwood, of which dag- 
ger handles were made, being called dudgeon, or dudgin. [gouts 
= drops.] 

50. [abuse = delude.] 

54. [watch : this evidently means the cry uttered by the 
watchman at intervals.] 



32 MACBETH. [Act II. 

Hear it not, Duncan ; for it is a knell 

That summons thee to heaven or to hell. [Exit. 



[Scene II.] 
Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady If. That which hath made them drunk hath 
made me bold ; 
What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark ! 

Peace ! 
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, 
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : 
The doors are open ; and the surfeited grooms 
.Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugg'd 

their possets, 
That death and nature do contend about them, 
Whether they live or die. 

Macb. [ Within.] Who 's there ? what, ho ! 

Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, 10 
And 't is not done. The attempt, and not the deed, 
Confounds us. Hark ! I laid their daggers ready ; 
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 
My father as he slept, I had done 't. 

Enter Macbeth. 

My husband ! 

Scene II. The folio has here Scena Secunda, and on the 
entrance of the Porter Scena Tertia. But the proper effect of 
this grand action is lost, unless it is imagined, as Shakespeare 
imagined it, as continuous and in one spot. For convenience' 
sake, however, the old divisions are indicated, and the lines of 
the scenes are numbered accordingly. 

3. [bellman : the common bellman was usually sent to con- 
demned persons the night before their execution; hence the 
present epithet "fatal."] 



Scene II.] MACBETH. 33 

Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear 
a noise ? 

Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets 
cry. 
Did not you speak ? 

Macb. When ? 

Lady M. Now. 

Macb. As I descended ? 

Lady M. Ay. 

Macb. Hark! 
Who lies i' th' second chamber ? 

Lady M. Donalbain. 20 

Macb. This is a SOrry sight. [Looking on his hands. 

Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 
Macb. There 's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one 
cried " Murther ! " 
That they did wake each other : I stood and heard 

them : 
But they did say their prayers, and address'd them 
Again to sleep. 

Lady M. There are two lodged together. 
Macb. One cried " God bless us ! " and " Amen " 
the other, 
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands, 
Listening their fear. — I could not say " Amen," 
When they did say " God bless us ! " 

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. 

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce 
" Amen " ? 31 

I had most need of blessing, and "Amen " 
Stuck in my throat. 

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought 

After these ways ; so, it will make us mad. 

Macb, Methought I heard a voice cry " Sleep no 
more ! 



1 



34 MACBETH. [Act II. 

Macbeth does murther sleep," — the innocent sleep, 
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, 
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, 
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
Chief nourisher in life's feast, — 

Lady M. What do you mean? 40 

Macb. Still it cried " Sleep no more ! " to all the 
house : 
" Glamis hath murther'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor 
Shall sleep no more ; Macbeth shall sleep no more." 

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried ? Why, 
worthy thane, 
You do unbend your noble strength, to think 
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 
And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 
Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 
They must lie there : go carry them ; and smear 
The sleepy grooms with blood. 

Macb. I '11 go no more : 50 

I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
Look on 't again I dare not. 

Lady M. Infirm of purpose ! 

Give me the daggers : the sleeping and the dead 
Are but as pictures : 't is the eye of childhood 
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 
I '11 gild the faces of the grooms withal ; 

For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within. 



37. [ravell'd sleeve : this is the folio reading. Seward sug- 
gested " sleave," which has since been frequently adopted. It 
is preferred by Dr. Furness. Sleave = coarse, soft, unwrought 
silk. (Malone.) If this suggestion be accepted, it is necessary 
to understand ravell'd as meaning "tangled." Analyze the 
metaphor in each of these two readings; in which case is it more 
illustrative ?] 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 35 

Mad). Whence is that knocking ? 

How is 't with me, when every noise appals me? 
What hands are here ? ha ! they pluck out mine eyes. 
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 60 

Clean from my hand ? No, this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red. 

Re-enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. My hands are of your colour ; but I shame 
To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.~] I 

hear a knocking 
At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : 
A little water clears us of this deed : 
How easy is it, then ! Your constancy 
Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.~\ 

Hark ! more knocking. 
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, 70 

And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 
So poorly in your thoughts. 

Macb. To know my deed, 'twere best not know 

myself. {Knocking within. 

Wake Duncan with thy knocking ! I would thou 

COuldst ! [Exeunt. 

[Scene III.] 

Knocking continued. Enter a Porter. 

Porter. Here 's a knocking indeed! If a man 
were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning 

62. [The multitudinous seas : note the hurrying, crowded 
effect of this epithet, and the deep sigh or moan that seems to 
sound through incarnadine. Both elements of our noble lan- 
guage are valuable ; the Saxon is sometimes overpraised, at the 
expense of the Latin. Try to produce the effect of this magnifi- 
cent line with pure Saxon words, incarnadine = to dye red.] 

2. old : constantly used as a term of intensification or exag- 
geration. 



36 MACBETH. [Act II. 

the key. [Knocking.'] Knock, knock, knock ! 
Who 's there, i' th' name of Beelzebub ? Here 's a 
farmer, that hang'd himself on the expectation of 
plenty : come in time ; have napkins enow about you ; 
here you '11 sweat for 't. [Knocking.] Knock, 
knock! Who's there, in the other devil's name? 
Faith, here 's an equivocator, that could swear in both 
the scales against either scale ; who committed trea- 
son enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate 
to heaven : O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking.] 
Knock, knock, knock ! Who 's there ? Faith, here 's 
an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a 
French hose : come in, tailor ; here you may roast 
your goose. [Knocking.] Knock, knock ; never at 
quiet ! What are you ? But this place is too cold 
for hell. I '11 devil - porter it no further : I had 
thought to have let in some of all professions that go 
the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knock- 
ing.] Anon, anon. I pray you, remember the por- 
ter. [Opens the gate. 
Enter Macduff and Lennox. 

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 
That you do lie so late ? 

Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second 
cock. 

Macd. Is thy master stirring? 
Enter Macbeth. 
Our knocking has awaked him ; here he comes. 

Len. Good morrow, noble sir. 

Macb. Good morrow, both. 

Macd. Is the King stirring, worthy thane ? 

Macb. Not yet. 30 

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him : 
I have almost slipp'd the hour. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 37 

Macb. I '11 bring you to him. 

Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you ; 
But yet 't is one. 

Macb. The labour we delight in physics pain. 
This is the door. 

Macd. I 11 make so bold to call, 

For 't is my limited service. [Exit. 

Len. Goes the King hence to-day ? 

Macb. He does : he did appoint so. 

Len. The night has been unruly : where we lay, 
Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, 40 
Lamentings heard i' th' air ; strange screams of death, 
And prophesying with accents terrible 
Of dire combustion and confused events 
New hatch 'd to the woeful time : the obscure bird 
Clamour'd the livelong night : some say, the earth 
Was feverous and did shake. 

Macb. 'T was a rough night. 

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel 
A fellow to it. 

Ee-enter Macduff. 

Macd. O horror, horror, horror ! Tongue nor heart 
Cannot conceive nor name thee ! 

T I What 's the matter ? 50 

Len. j 

Macd. Confusion now hath made his master-piece ! 
Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope 
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 
The life o' th' building ! 

Macb. What is 't you say ? the life ? 

Len. Mean you his majesty ? 

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your 
sight 

37. [limited = appointed.] 



38 MACBETH. [Act II. 

With a new Gorgon : do not bid me speak ; 

See, and then speak yourselves. [Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. 

Awake, awake ! 
Ring the alarum-bell. Murther and treason ! 
Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 60 

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
And look on death itself ! up, up, and see 
The great doom's image ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 
To countenance this horror ! Ring the bell. [Bell rings. 
Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. What 's the business, 
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
The sleepers of the house ? speak, speak ! 

Macd. O gentle lady, 

'T is not for you to hear what I can speak : 
The repetition, in a woman's ear, 70 

Would murther as it fell. 

Enter Banquo. 

O Banquo, Banquo, 
Our royal master 's murther'd ! 

Lady M. Woe, alas ! 

What, in our house ? 

Ban. Too cruel any where. 

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 
And say it is not so. 

Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross. 
Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
I had lived a blessed time ; for, from this instant, 
There 's nothing serious in mortality : 
All is but toys : renown and grace is dead ; 
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees so 

Is left this vault to brag of. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 39 

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. 

Don. What is amiss ? 

Macb. You are, and do not know 't : 

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
Is stopp'd ; the very source of it is stopp'd. 

Macd. Your royal father 's murther'd. 

Mai. O, by whom ? 

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had 
done 't : 
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood ; 
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found 
Upon their pillows : 

They stared, and were distracted ; no man's life 90 
Was to be trusted with them. 

Macb. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, 
That I did kill them. 

Macd. Wherefore did you so ? 

Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temp'rate and 
furious, 
Loyal and neutral, in a moment ? No man : 
The expedition of my violent love 
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, 
His silver skin laced with his golden blood ; 
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature 
For ruin's wasteful entrance : there, the murtherers, 
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers 101 
Unmannerly breech'd with gore : who could refrain, 
That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
Courage to make 's love known ? 

Lady M. Help me hence, ho ! 

Macd. Look to the lady. 

87. [badged = wearing " murder's crimson badge." (2 Henry 
VI. Act III. Sc. 2.)] 



40 MACBETH. [Act II. 

Mai. [Aside to Don.'] Why do we hold our 
tongues, 
That most may claim this argument for ours ? 

Don. [Aside to Mai.] What should be spoken 
here, where our fate, 
Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us ? 
Let 's away. 
Our tears are not yet brew'd. 

Mai. [Aside to Don.] Nor our strong sorrow no 
Upon the foot of motion. 

Ban. Look to the lady : 

[Lady Macbeth is carried out. 

And when we have our naked frailties hid, 

That suffer in exposure, let us meet, 

And question this most bloody piece of work, 

To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 

In the great hand of God I stand ; and thence 

Against the undivulged pretence I fight 

Of treasonous malice. 

Macd. And so do I. 

All. So all. 

Macb. Let 's briefly put on manly readiness, 
And meet i' th' hall together. 

AIL Well contented. 120 

[Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. 

Mai. What will you do ? Let 's not consort with 
them : 
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 
Which the false man does easy. I '11 to England. 

Don. To Ireland, I ; our separated fortune 
Shall keep us both the safer : where we are, 
There 's daggers in men's smiles : the near in blood, 
The nearer bloody. 

117. [pretence = intention, purpose.] 



Scene IV.] MACBETH. 41 

Mai. This murtherous shaft that 's shot 

Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse ; 
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, iso 

But shift away : there 's warrant in that theft 
Which steals itself, when there 's no mercy left. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene II. Outside Macbeth 's castle. 

[Scene IV., in the folio of 1623.] 

Enter Ross and an old Man. 

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well : 

Within the volume of which time I have seen 

Hours dreadful and things strange ; but this sore 

night 
Hath trifled former knowings. 

Boss - Ah, good father, 

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
Threaten his bloody stage : by th' clock, 't is day, 
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp : 
Is 't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
When living light should kiss it ? 

Old M. 'T is unnatural, 10 

Even like the deed that 's done. On Tuesday last, 
A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place, 
Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. 

Boss. And Duncan's horse — a thing most strange 

and certain — 
7. strangles the travelling lamp =: obscures the sun. 
12. [tow'ring . . . place : technical terms of falconry, equiv- 
alent to " soaring (proudly) to the highest point of her flight." 
Why has mousing, in the next line, a special force ?] 

14. [horse: the folio has " horses." If Mr. White's conjecture 
be correct, this is the old plural, as in Chaucer.] See also Act 
IV. Sc. 1, line 140. 



42 MA CBETH. [Act II. Sc. IV. 

Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
War with mankind. 

Old M. 'T is said they eat each other. 

Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes 
That look'd upon 't. Here comes the good Macduff. 

Enter Macduff. 
How goes the world, sir, now ? 

Macd. Why, see you not ? 21 

Ross. Is 't known who did this more than bloody 
deed? 

Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 

Ross. Alas, the day ! 

What good could they pretend ? 

Macd. They were suborn'd : 

Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons, 
Are stol'n away and fled ; which puts upon them 
Suspicion of the deed. 

Ross. 'Gainst nature still ! 

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 
Thine own life's means ! Then 't is most like 
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 

Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone 
To be invested. 

15. minions = cherished favorites. 

18. eat each other. We should probably read ate; and in- 
deed eat and ate were pronounced alike. This story about the 
horses is from Holinshed ; and so also is what is told about the 
tempestuous weather. 

24. pretend = purpose, seek. 

28. ravin = eat greedily: whence "ravenous." 

31. Scone : an ancient town near Perth, now obliterated. 
The stone on which the kings of Scotland were crowned is now 
enclosed in the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey. 



Act III. Sc. L] MA CBETH. 43 

Ross. Where is Duncan's body ? 

Macd. Carried to Colmekill, 
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
And guardian of their bones. 

Ross. Will you to Scone ? 

Macd. No, cousin, I '11 to Fife. 

Ross. Well, I will thither. 

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there : 
adieu ! 
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new ! 

Ross. Farewell, father. 

Old M. God's benison go with you ; and with 
those 40 

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes ! 

[Exeunt. 



ACT III. 

Scene I. Forres. The palace. 
Enter Banquo. 
Ban. Thou hast it now : king, Cawdor, Glamis, 
all, 
As the weird women promised, and, I fear, 
Thou play'dst most foully for 't : yet it was said 
It should not stand in thy posterity, 
But that myself should be the root and father 
Of many kings. If there come truth from them — 
As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine — 

33. Colmekill, or Ilcolmkill, a barren isle, generally known 
as Iona, is a few miles south of Staffa. It became, by means of 
St. Columba and the monastery he founded there in the middle 
of the sixth century, the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland. 
Hence it was supposed to be holy ground; and hence the kings 
of Scotland were entombed there. 



44 MA CBE TH. [Act III. 

Why, by the verities on thee made good, 

May they not be my oracles as well, 

And set me up in hope ? But hush ! no more. 10 

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth, as king, Lady Macbeth, as queen, 
Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. 

Macb. Here 's our chief guest. 

Lady M. If he had been forgotten, 

It had been as a gap in our great feast, 
And all-thing unbecoming. 

Macb. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, 
And I '11 request your presence. 

Ban. Lay your highness' 

Command upon me ; to the which my duties 
Are with a most indissoluble tie 
For ever knit. 

Macb. Ride you this afternoon ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord. 20 

Macb. We should have else desired your good 
advice, 
Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 
In this day's council ; but we '11 take to-morrow. 
Is 't far you ride ? 

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 
'Twixt this and supper : go not my horse the better, 
I must become a borrower of the night 
For a dark hour or twain. 

Macb. Fail not our feast. 

Ban. My lord, I will not. 

Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd 30 
In England and in Ireland, not confessing 
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 
With strange invention : but of that to-morrow, 
When therewithal we shall have cause of state 
13. all-thing == every way. 



Scene I.J MACBETH 45 

Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse : adieu, 
Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord : our time does call upon 's. 

Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot ; 
And so I do commend you to their backs. 
Farewell. [Exit Banquo. 

Let every man be master of his time 41 

Till seven at night. To make society 
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
Till supper-time alone : while then, God be with you ! 

[Exeunt all but Macbeth, and an Attendant. 

Sirrah, a word with you : attend those men 
Our pleasure ? 

Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. 

Macb. Bring them before us. [Exit Attendant. 

To be thus is nothing ; 
But to be safely thus. — Our fears in Banquo 
Stick deep ; and in his royalty of nature 50 

Reigns that which would be fear'd : 't is much he 

dares ; 
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour 
To act in safety. There is none but he 
Whose being I do fear : and, under him, 
My Genius is rebuked ; as, it is said, 
Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters 
When first they put the name of king upon me, 
And bade them speak to him : then prophet-like 
They hail'd him father to a line of kings : 60 

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, 
Thence to be wrench 'd with an unlineal hand, 
No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so, 
44. [while = till.] 



1r 



46 MACBETH. [Act III. 

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind ; 

For them the gracious Duncan have I murther'd ; 

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace 

Only for them ; and mine eternal jewel 

Given to the common enemy of man, 

To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings ! 70 

Rather than so, come fate into the list, 

And champion me to th' utterance ! Who 's there ? 

Ee-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. 

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. 

[Exit Attendant. 

Was it not yesterday we spoke together ? 

First Mur. It was, so please your highness. 

Macb. Well then, now 

Have you' consider'd of my speeches ? Know 
That it was he in the times past which held you 
So under fortune, which you thought had been 
Our innocent self : this I made good to you 
In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you, so 
How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instru- 
ments, 
Who wrought with them, and all things else that 

might 
To half a soul and to a notion crazed 
Say " Thus did Banquo." 

First Mur. You made it known to us. 

Macb. I did so, and went further, which is now 
Our point of second meeting. Do you find 
Your patience so predominant in your nature 

65. filed = fouled, defiled. 
68. eternal jewel = immortal soul. 

72. utterance = outer-ance = outrance. A combat a I'outrance 
was one to the uttermost end, death. 

81. borne in hand == kept up by promises. 



Scene I.] MACBETH. 47 

That you can let this go ? Are you so gospell'd 
To pray for this good man and for his issue, 
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave 90 
And beggar' d yours for ever? 

First Mur. We are men, my liege. 

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves, are clept 
All by the name of dogs : the valued file 
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
According to the gift which bounteous nature 
Hath in him closed ; whereby he does receive 
Particular addition, from the bill 100 

That writes them all alike : and so of men. 
Now, if you have a station in the file, 
Not i' th' worst rank of manhood, say 't ; 
And I will put that business in your bosoms, 
Whose execution takes your enemy off, 
Grapples you to the heart and love of us, 
Who wear our health but sickly in his life, 
Which in his death were perfect. 

Sec. Mur. I am one, my liege, 

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
Have so incensed that I am reckless what 110 

I do to spite the world. 

First Mur. And I another 

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, 

94. [Shoughs (shocks) and water-rugs were shaggy dogs.] 
clept = cleped = called ; from A. S. cleopian. 

95. valued file = the graded file, file on which value as well 
as name is entered. 

100. Particular addition = a name or title belonging par- 
ticularly to him. 



48 MACBETH. [Act III. 

That I would set my life on any chance, 
To mend it, or be rid on 't. 

Macb. Both of you 

Know Banquo was your enemy. 

Both Mur. True, my lord. 

Macb. So is he mine ; and in such bloody distance, 
That every minute of his being thrusts 
Against my near'st of life : and though I could 
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight 
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, 120 

For certain friends that are both his and mine, 
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
Who I myself struck down ; and thence it is, 
That I to your assistance do make love, 
Masking the business from the common eye 
For sundry weighty reasons. 

Sec. Mur. We shall, my lord, 

Perform what you command us. 

First Mur. Though our lives — 

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within 
this hour at most, 
I will advise you where to plant yourselves ; 
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' th' time, 130 

The moment on 't ; for 't must be done to-night, 
And something from the palace ; always thought 

116. [Dyce notes that distance " was a fencing term, denot- 
ing the space between antagonists." This makes the metaphor 
in thrusts quite clear.] 

130. spy o' th' time = anticipatory knowledge of the time. 
Dr. Johnson read "a perfect spy," and understood " with " to 
mean " by " and " spy " to refer to the third murderer, who ap- 
pears in Sc. 3 of this act, — a very plausible interpretation, which 
I once adopted ; but the former is much better suited to Shake- 
speare, and particularly to the style of this play. 

132. always thought . . . clearness. Here language is 



Scene II.] MACBETH. 49 

That I require a clearness : and with him — 
To leave no rubs nor botches in the work — 
Fleance his son, that keeps him company, 
Whose absence is no less material to me 
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
Of that dark hour. Eesolve yourselves apart : 
I '11 come to you anon. 

Both Mur. We are resolved, my lord. 

Macb. I '11 call upon you straight : abide within, wo 

[Exeunt Murderers. 

It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight, 

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exit. 

Scene II. The palace. 
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. 

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court ? 

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. 

Lady M. Say to the King, I would attend his 
leisure 
For a few words. 

Serv. Madam, I will. [Exit. 

Lady M. Nought 's had, all 's spent, 

Where our desire is got without content : 
'T is safer to be that which we destroy 
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. 

Enter Macbeth. 
How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, 
Of sorriest fancies your companions making, 
Using those thoughts which should indeed have died io 

strained to the utmost to put briefly and rhythmically what 
Holinshed says thus: "so that he would not have his house 
slaundered, but that in time to come he might cleare himselfe." 



50 MACBETH. [Act III. 

With them they think on ? Things without all remedy 
Should be without regard : what 's done is done. 

Mach. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it : 
She '11 close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
Remains in danger of her former tooth. 
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds 

suffer, 
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 
In the affliction of these terrible dreams 
That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, 
Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to peace, 20 
Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave ; 
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well ; 
Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 
Can touch him further. 

Lady M. Come on ; 

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks ; 
Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night. 

Macb. So shall I, love ; and so, I pray, be you : 
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo ; 30 

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue : 
Unsafe the while, that we . . . 

11. without all remedy == outside of, beyond, all remedy. 

13. scotch'd = cut, but not cut quite through; a word which 
should not need a gloss in New England. 

20. our place. The folio, " our peace ; " but Macbeth had 
killed no one yet for peace' sake. He killed Duncan for his 
place. 

22. [ecstasy: in Shakespeare this signifies any intense ex- 
citement, whether painful or pleasurable.] 

30. remembrance: to be pronounced rememberance; and 
perhaps should be so printed. 

32. Unsafe the while, etc.: a mutilated line: the missing 
phrase meaning, probably, " for safety's sake." 



Scene II.] MA CBE TH. 5 1 

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams, 
And make our faces vizards to our hearts, 
Disguising what they are. 

Lady M. You must leave this. 

Macb. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! 
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. 

Lady M. But in them nature's copy 's not eterne. 

Macb. There 's comfort yet ; they are assailable ; 
Then be thou jocund : ere the bat hath flown 40 

His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons 
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums 
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
A deed of dreadful note. 

Lady M. What 's to be done ? 

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day ; 
And with thy bloody and invisible hand 
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond 
Which keeps me pale ! Light thickens ; and the 
crow 50 

Makes wing to the rooky wood : 
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ; 
Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. 
Thou marvell'st at my words : but hold thee still : 

38. nature's copy == the likeness of nature, their natural 
lives; but some critics would have a legal meaning, and refer 
" copy " to copyhold. 

42. shard-borne = borne on his shard wings. Shard = a 
thin, brittle substance; for example pot-sherd. 

46. seeling = blinding; a term of falconry. One part of the 
training of hawks was to sew up, or seel, their eyes. 

49. [that great bond : evidently Banquo's life. Compare 
Richard III. Act IY. Sc. 4: " Cancel his bond of life." Is not 
this related to nature's copy, line 38 ?] 



52 MA CBE TH. [Act III. 

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. 
So, prithee, go with me. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. A park near the palace. 
Enter three Murderers. 

First Mur. But who did bid thee join with us ? 

Third Mur. Macbeth. 

Sec. Mur. He needs not our mistrust, since he 
delivers 
Our offices and what we have to do 
To the direction just. 

First Mur. Then stand with us. 

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day : 
Now spurs the lated traveller apace 
To gain the timely inn ; and near approaches 
The subject of our watch. 

Third Mur. Hark ! I hear horses. 

Ban. [ Within.'] Give us a light there, ho ! 

Sec. Mur. Then 't is he : the rest 

That are within the note of expectation w 

Already are i' th' court. 

First Mur. His horses go about. 

Third Mur. Almost a mile : but he does usually, 
So all men do, from hence to the palace gate 
Make it their walk. 

Sec. Mur. A light, a light ! 

Enter Banqcto, and Fleance with a torch. 

Third Mur. 'T is he. 

First Mur. Stand to 't. 

Ban. It will be rain to-night. 

First Mur. Let it come down. 

[They set upon Banquo. 

Ban. O, treachery ! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, 

Thou mayst revenge. O slave ! [Dies. Fleance escapes. 



Scene IV.] MACBETH. 53 

Third Mur. Who did strike out the light? 

First Mur. Was 't not the way ? 

Third Mur. There 's but one down ; the son is 

fled. • 

Sec. Mur. We have lost 
Best half of our affair. 21 

First Mur. Well, let 's away, and say how much 

is done. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene IV. The same. Hall in the palace. 

A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, 
Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. 

Macb. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at 
first 
And last the hearty welcome. 

Lords. Thanks to your majesty. 

Macb. Ourself will mingle with society, 
And play the humble host. 
Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time 
We will require her welcome. 

Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our 
friends ; 
For my heart speaks they are welcome. 

First Murderer appears at the door. 

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' 
thanks. 
Both sides are even : here I '11 sit i' th' midst : 10 

Be large in mirth ; anon we '11 drink a measure 
The table round. [Approaching the door.~] There 's 
blood upon thy face. 
Mur. 'T is Banquo's then. 

5. her state = her place of state, a canopied chair on a dais. 



54 MACBETH. [Act III. 

Macb. 'T is better thee without than he within. 
Is he dispatch'd ? 

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut ; that I did for 
him. 9 

Macb. Thou art the best o' th' cut-throats: yet 
he 's good 
That did the like for Fleance : if thou didst it, 
Thou art the nonpareil. 

Mur. Most royal sir, 

Fleance is 'scaped. 20 

Macb. Then comes my fit again : I had else been 
perfect, 
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 
As broad and general as the casing air : 
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in 
To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo 's safe ? 

Mur. Ay, my good lord : safe in a ditch he bides, 
With twenty trenched gashes on his head ; 
The least a death to nature. 

Macb. Thanks for that : 

There the grown serpent lies ; the worm that 's fled 
Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 30 

No teeth for the present. Get thee gone : to-morrow 
We '11 hear ourselves again. [Exit Murderers. 

Lady M. My royal lord, 

You do not give the cheer : the feast is sold 
That is not often vouch'd, while 't is a-making, 
'T is given with welcome : to feed were best at home ; 
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony ; 
Meeting were bare without it. 

Macb. Sweet remembrancer ! 

Now, good digestion wait on appetite, 
And health on both ! 

14. than he within: carelessly written for "than him," etc. 
23. casing = encompassing. 



Scene IV.] MACBETH. 55 

Len. May 't please your highness sit. 

[The Ghost of Banquo enters, and sits in Macbeth' s place. 

Macb. Here had we now our country's honour 
roof'd, « 

Were the graced person of our Banquo present, 
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 
Than pity for mischaiice, — 

Ross. His absence, sir, 

Lays blame upon his promise. Please 't your high- 
ness 
To grace us with your royal company. 

Macb. The table 's full. 

Len. Here is a place reserved, sir. 

Macb. Where? 

Len. Here, my good lord. What is 't that moves 
your highness ? 

Macb. Which of you have done this ? 

Lords. What, my good lord ? 

Macb. Thou canst not say I did it : never shake so 
Thy gory locks at me. 

Ross. Gentlemen, rise : his highness is not well. 

Lady M. Sit, worthy friends : my lord is often 
thus, 
And hath been from his youth : pray you, keep seat ; 
The fit is momentary ; upon a thought 
He will again be well : if much you note him, 
You shall offend him and extend his passion : 
Feed, and regard him not. [Aside to Macbeth.'] Are 
you a man ? 

57. passion = suffering. 

58. Are you a man ? This and Lady Macbeth's three fol- 
lowing speeches are hurried under-breath expostulations with 
her husband; but his speeches in reply are spoken only with the 
restraint of terror. At line 83 she addresses him in her society 
way, and he so answers. 



56 MACBETH. [Act III. 

Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 
Which might appal the devil. 

Lady M. [Aside to Macbeth.'] O proper stuff! eo 
This is the very painting of your fear : 
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, 
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, 
Impostors to true fear, would well become 
A woman's story at a winter's fire, 
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself ! 
Why do you make such faces ? When all 's done, 
You look but on a stool. 

Macb. Prithee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how 
say you ? 
Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. 70 
If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
Those that we bury back, our monuments 
Shall be the maws of kites. [Ghost vanishes. 

Lady M. [Aside to Macbeth.] What, quite un- 
mann'd in folly? 

Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. 

Lady M. [Aside to Macbeth.] Fie, for shame ! 

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' th' olden 
time, 
Ere human statute purged the gentle weal ; 
Ay, and since too, murthers have been performed 
Too terrible for the ear : the time has been, 
That, when the brains were out, the man would die, 
And there an end ; but now they rise again, so 

63. [flaws = sudden gusts.] 

66. [Read authorized. 1 

76. [human statute : the folio reads " humane," which Shake- 
speare accented on the first syllable. The meaning in this 
passage would be nearly the same, weal = commonweal, as 
throughout the play; gentle, as the Clarendon Press editors have 
pointed out, is of course to be taken proleptically.] 



Scene IV.] MACBETH. 57 

With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns, 
And push us from our stools : this is more strange 
Than such a murther is. 

Lady M. My worthy lord, 

Your noble friends do lack you. 

Macb. I do forget. 

Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends ; 
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 
To those that know me. Come, love and health to 

all; 
Then I '11 sit down. Give me some wine ; fill full. 
I drink to the general joy o' th' whole table, 
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ; 90 
Would he were here ! to all, and him, we thirst, 
And all to all. 

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. 

Re-enter Ghost. 

Macb. Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! let the earth 
hide thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with ! 

Lady M. Think of this, good peers, 

But as a thing of custom : 't is no other ; 
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. 

Macb. What man dare, I dare : 
Approach thou like the rugged Eussian bear, 100 

The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger ; 
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 

81. twenty mortal murthers. Quite probably Shakespeare 
meant to write, possibly did write, "twenty mortal gashes." See 
line 27. 

101. Hyrcan tiger. Hyrcania was a part of the Scythian 
wild, south of the Caspian Sea. 



58 MACBETH. [Act III. 

Shall never tremble : or be alive again, 

And dare me to the desert with thy sword ; 

If trembling I inhabit then, protest me 

The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow ! 

Unreal mockery, hence ! [Ghost vanishes. 

Why, so : being gone, 
I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. 

Lady M. You have displaced the mirth, broke the 
good meeting, 
With most admired disorder. 

Macb. Can such things be, no 

And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
Without our special wonder ? You make me strange 
Even to the disposition that I owe, 
When now I think you can behold such sights, 
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, 
When mine is blanch'd with fear. 

Boss. What sights, my lord ? 

Lady M. I pray you, speak not ; he grows worse 
and worse ; 
Question enrages him. At once, good night : 
Stand not upon the order of your going, 
But go at once. 

Len. Good night ; and better health 120 

Attend his majesty ! 

Lady M. A kind good night to all ! 

[Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady M. 

105. If trembling, etc. This may mean either " If I then 
dwell, exist, in trembling " (as in " Thou that inhabitest the 
praises of Israel," Psalm xxii. 3), or, " If I then keep within my 
house and dare not meet thee in the desert." 

106. [baby : it is possible that this means doll. Mr. White 
elsewhere remarks, " Girls still retain this use of the word in 
' baby-house.' "] 

110. admire 3. ■= wondered at. 



Scene IV.] MACBETH. 59 

Macb. It will have blood ; they say, blood will 
have blood : 
Stones have been known to move and trees to speak ; 
Auguries and understood relations have 
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth 
The secret' st man of blood. What is the night ? 

Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is 
which. 

Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his 
person 
At our great bidding ? 

Lady M. Did you send to him, sir ? 

Macb. I hear it by the way ; but I will send : 130 
There 's not a man of them but in his house 
I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow, 
And betimes I will, to the weird sisters : 
More shall they speak ; for now I am bent to know, 
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good, 
All causes shall give way : I am in blood 
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, 
Returning were as tedious as go o'er : 
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand ; 
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. mo 

Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 

Macb. Come, we '11 to sleep. My strange and self- 
abuse 
Is the initiate fear that wants hard use : 
We are yet but young in deed. [Exeunt. 

125. magot-pies = magpies. 

131. There 's not a man : from Holinshed : "For Makbeth 
had in every noble man's house one slie fellow or other in fee 
with him." 

142. [self-abuse = delusion "proceeding from the heat-op- 
pressed brain."] 



60 MACBETH. [Act III. 

Scene V. A heath. 
Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate. 

First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look 
angerly. 

Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, 
Saucy and overbold ? How did you dare 
To trade and traffic with Macbeth 
In riddles and affairs of death ; 
And I, the mistress of your charms, 
The close contriver of all harms, 
Was never call'd to bear my part, 
Or show the glory of our art ? 

And, which is worse, all you have done 10 

Hath been but for a wayward son, 
Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, 
Loves for his own ends, not for you. 
But make amends now : get you gone, 
And at the pit of Acheron 
Meet me i' th' morning : thither he 
Will come to know his destiny : 
Your vessels and your spells provide, 
Your charms and every thing beside. 
I am for the air ; this night I '11 spend 20 

Unto a dismal and a fatal end : 
Great business must be wrought ere noon : 
Upon the corner of the moon 
There hangs a vaporous drop profound ; 
I '11 catch it ere it come to ground : 
And that distill'd by magic sleights 

1. Hecate : properly pronounced Hec-at-e, but here Hec-at. 
A mysterious and even now little understood goddess of the 
heathen mythology ; a " contriver of all harms." 

15. "Acheron : a river in Hades, here made a pit in Scotland. 



Scene VI.] MACBETH. 61 

Shall raise such artificial sprites 

As by the strength of their illusion 

Shall draw him on to his confusion : 

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 30 

His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear : 

And you all know, security 

Is mortals' chiefest enemy. 

[Music, and a song within : " Come away, come away," etc. 

Hark ! I am call'd ; my little spirit, see, 
Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Exit. 

First Witch. Come, let 's make haste ; she '11 soon 
be back again. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI. Forres. The palace. 
Enter Lennox and another Lord. 

Len. My former speeches have but hit your 

thoughts, 
Which can interpret further : only, I say, 
Things have been strangely borne. The gracious 

Duncan 
Was pitied of Macbeth : marry, he was dead : 
And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late ; 
Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance kill'd, 
For Fleance fled : men must not walk too late. 
Who cannot want the thought how monstrous 
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 
To kill their gracious father ? damned fact ! 10 

Music and a song, etc. The song (which the folio stage di- 
rection calls for) is found in Middleton's Witch. It is a part 
song ; Hecate being principal. See Introduction. 

3. [borne = carried on, managed.] 

8. Who cannot want, etc. Shakespeare meant " Who can 
want," etc.: an example of heterophemy. [monstrous: a tri- 
syllable.] 

10. [fact = deed, thing done (applied by Shakespeare to evil 
deeds.)] 



62 MACBETH. [Act III. Sc. VI. 

How it did grieve Macbeth ! did he not straight 

In pious rage the two delinquents tear, 

That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep ? 

Was not that nobly done ? Ay, and wisely too ; 

For 't would have anger'd any heart alive 

To hear the men deny 't. So that, I say, 

He has borne all things well : and I do think 

That had he Duncan's sons under his key — 

As, an 't please heaven, he shall not — they should 

find 
What 't were to kill a father ; so should Fleance. 20 
But, peace ! for from broad words and 'cause he fail'd 
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear 
Macduff lives in disgrace : sir, can you tell 
Where he bestows himself ? 

Lord. The son of Duncan, 

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, 
Lives in the English court, and is received 
Of the most pious Edward with such grace 
That the malevolence of fortune nothing 
Takes from his high respect : thither Macduff 
Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid 30 

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward : 
That, by the help of these — with Him above 
To ratify the work — we may again 
Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, 
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, 
Do faithful homage and receive free honours : 
All which we pine for now : and this report 

27. the most pious Edward = Edward the Confessor, the 
predecessor of Harold. 

35. Free from our feasts, etc. Had Shakespeare been in less 
haste, he probably would have remodelled this line thus: "From 
bloody knives our feasts and banquets free." 



Act IV. Sc. L] MA CBETH. 63 

Hath so exasperate the King that he 
Prepares for some attempt of war. 

Jjen. Sent he to Macduff ? 

Lord. He did : and with an absolute " Sir, not I," 
The cloudy messenger turns me his back, « 

And hums, as who should say, " You '11 rue the time 
That clogs me with this answer." 

Len. And that well might 

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 
Fly to the court of England and unfold 
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing 
May soon return to this our suffering country 
Under a hand accursed ! 

Lord. I '11 send my prayers with him. [Exeunt. 



ACT IV. 

Scene I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. 
Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 

Sec. Witch. Thrice, and once the hedge-pig whined. 

Third Witch. Harpier cries, 'T is time, 't is time. 

First Witch. Round about the cauldron go ; 
In the poison'd entrails throw. 
Toad, that under cold stone 

1. brinded : The same as "brindled." 

3. Harpier. If this word is not a corruption, or a misprint of 
harpy, we know not what it means. 

6. Toad, etc. [Collier remarks, " Laying only due and expres- 
sive emphasis upon ' cold,' it may be doubted whether the line be 
defective." And Hudson : " To our ear the extending of * cold ' 
to the time of two syllables feels right enough." So also the 
Clarendon Press editors.] 



64 MACBETH. [Act IV. 

Days and nights lias thirty-one 
Swelter 'd venom sleeping got, 
Boil thou first i' th' charmed pot. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; ic 

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 

Sec. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake, 
In the cauldron boil and bake ; 
Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, 
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing, 
For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 20 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, 
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, 
Root of hemlock digg'd i' th' dark, 
Liver of blaspheming Jew, 
Gall of goat, and slips of yew 
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse, 
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 

Finger of birth-strangled babe 3c 

Ditch-deliver'd by a drab, 
Make the gruel thick and slab : 
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 
For the ingredients of our cauldron. 

8. [Swelter'd = sweated.] 

23. [Gulf = that which sucks in, as a whirlpool does (engulfs). 
Hence it has been denned as " gullet." 

24. ravin'd = ravening, ravenous. 

33. chaudron = omentum or rim, part of the entrails. 
Cauldron was a perfect rhyme, the I boing then silent. 



Scene I.] MACBETH. 65 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Sec. Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
Then the charm is firm and good. 

Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. 
Hec. O, well done ! I commend your pains ; 
And every one shall share i' th' gains : 40 

And now about the cauldron sing, 
Like elves and fairies in a ring, 
Enchanting all that you put in. 

[Music and a song : " Black spirits," etc. Hecate retires. 
Sec. Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, 
Something wicked this way comes. 
Open, locks, 
Whoever knocks ! 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight 
hags ! 
What is 't you do? 

All. A deed without a name. 

Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, so 
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me : 
Though you untie the winds and let them fight 
Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 
Confound and swallow navigation up ; 
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down ; 
Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 
Though palaces and pyramids do slope 
Their heads to their foundations; though the treas- 
ure 

Music and a song, Black spirits, etc. : This song also is 
found in Middleton's Witch. 

55. Though bladed corn be lodged = though corn in the 
blade be laid flat. 



66 MA CBE TH. [Act IV. 

Of nature's germens tumble all together, 

Even till destruction sicken ; answer me ee 

To what I ask you. 

First Witch. Speak. 

Sec. Witch. Demand. 

Third Witch. We '11 answer. 

First Witch. Say, if thou 'dst rather hear it from 
our mouths, 
Or from our masters' ? 

Macb. Call 'em ; let me see 'em. 

First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 
Her nine farrow ; grease that 's sweaten 
From the murderer's gibbet throw 
Into the flame. 

All. Come, high or low ; 

Thyself and office deftly show ! 

Thunder. First Apparition : an armed Head. 

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, — 

First Witch. He knows thy thought : 

Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 70 

First Aj?p. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! be- 
ware Macduff ; 

Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. 

[Descends. 

Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, 
thanks ; 
Thou hast harp'd my fear aright : but one word 
more, — 
First Witch. He will not be commanded : here 's 
another, 
More potent than the first. 

59. germens = growing seeds ; here, the germs and roots of 
all things. 



Scene I.] MACBETH. 67 

Thunder. Second Apparition : a bloody Child. 

Sec. App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 

Mad). Had I three ears, I 'd hear thee. 

Sec. App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to 
scorn 
The power of man ; for none of woman born so 

Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends. 

Macb. Then live, Macduff : what need I fear of 
thee? 
But yet I '11 make assurance double sure, 
And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live ; 
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, 
And sleep in spite of thunder. 

Thunder. Third Apparition : a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand. 

What is this 
That rises like the issue of a king, 
And wears upon his baby-brow the round 
And top of sovereignty ? 

AIL Listen, but speak not to 't. 

Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud ; and take no 
care 90 

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until 
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill 
Shall come against him. [Descends. 

Macb. That will never be : 

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 
Unfix his earth - bound root ? Sweet bodements ! 

good ! 
Rebellion's head, rise never till the wood 
Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 
To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 100 



68 MACBETH. [Act IV. 

Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art 
Can tell so much : shall Banquo's issue ever 
Reign in this kingdom ? 

All. Seek to know no more. 

Macb. I will be satisfied : deny me this, 
And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know. 
Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? 

[Hautboys. 

First Witch. Show! 

Sec. Witch. Show! 

Third Witch. Show! 

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart ; no 

Come like shadows, so depart ! 

A show of Eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand ; Banquo's 

Ghost following. 

Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; 
down ! 
Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair, 
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. 
A third is like the former. Filthy hags ! 
Why do you show me this ? A fourth ! Start, eyes ! 
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? 
Another yet ! A seventh ! I '11 see no more : 
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
Which shows me many more ; and some I see 120 

That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry : 
Horrible sight ! Now, I see, 't is true ; 

A show of Eight Kings. Eight Stuart Kings, said to have 
been descended from Banquo, preceded James I., upon the 
throne of Scotland. His beheaded mother, Mary, was pru- 
dently left out of the show. 

121. two-fold balls and treble sceptres : indicating the 
coming union of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the kingdoms 
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which took place under James 
I., although the united kingdom was not formed until afterwards. 



Scene I.] MACBETH. 69 

For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me, 
And points at them for his. [Apparitions vanish.'] 
What, is this so ? 
First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so : but why- 
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 
Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 
And show the best of our delights : 
I '11 charm the air to give a sound, 
While you perform your antic round : 130 

That this great king may kindly say, 
Our duties did his welcome pay. 

[Music. The Witches dance, and then vanish, with Hecate. 

Macb. Where are they ? Gone ? Let this per- 
nicious hour 
Stand aye accursed in the calendar ! 
Come in, without there ! 

Enter Lennox. 

Len. What 's your grace's will ? 

Macb. Saw you the weird sisters ? 

Len. No, my lord. 

Macb. Came they not by you ? 

Len. No, indeed, my lord. 

Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride ; 
And damn'd all those that trust them ! I did hear 
The galloping of horse : who was 't came by ? 140 

Len. 'T is two or three, my lord, that bring you 
word 
Macduff is fled to England. 

Macb. Fled to England ! 

Len. Ay, my good lord. 

Macb. Time, thou anticipat'st my dread exploits : 
The nighty purpose never is o'ertook 

123. blood-bolter'd. " Boltered " is a Warwickshire word 
meaning clotted, coagulated. 



70 MACBETH. [Act IV. 

Unless the deed go with it : from this moment 

The very firstlings of my heart shall be 

The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 

To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and 

done : 
The castle of Macduff I will surprise ; wo 

Seize upon Fife ; give to the edge o' th' sword 
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls 
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool ; 
This deed I '11 do before this purpose cool. 
But no more sights ! — Where are these gentlemen? 
Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. Fife. Macduff's castle. 
Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. 

L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the 
land? 

JRoss. You must have patience, madam. 

L. Macd. He had none : 

His flight was madness : when our actions do not, 
Our fears do make us traitors. 

Ross. You know not 

Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 

L. Macd. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his 
babes, 
His mansion and his titles in a place 
From whence himself does fly ? He loves us not ; 
He wants the natural touch : for the poor wren, 
The most diminutive of birds, will fight, w 

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
All is the fear and nothing is the love ; 
As little is the wisdom, where the flight 
So runs against all reason. 

153. [trace = follow.] 9. [touch = sensibility, feeling.] 



Scene IL] MACBETH. 71 

Hoss. My dearest coz, 

I pray you, school yourself : but for your husband, 
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 
The fits o' th' season. I dare not speak much further ; 
But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 
And do not know ourselves ; when we hold rumour 
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, 20 
But float upon a wild and violent sea 
And each way move. I take my leave of you : 
Shall not be long but I '11 be here again : 
Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 
To what they were before. My pretty cousin, 
Blessing upon you ! 

L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he 's fatherless. 

Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : 
I take my leave at once. [Exit. 

L. Macd. Sirrah, your father 's dead : 30 

And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 

Son. As birds do, mother. 

L. Macd. What, with worms and flies? 

Son. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. 

L. Macd. Poor bird ! thou 'dst never fear the net 
nor lime, 
The pitfall nor the gin. 

Son. Why should I, mother ? Poor birds they are 
not set for. 
My father is not dead, for all your saying. 

L. Macd. Yes, he is dead : how wilt thou do for a 
father ? 

Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 

17. the fits o' th' season = what suits the time. 
19. [hold rumour : probably equivalent to " believe ru- 
mour."] 



72 MA CBE TH. [Act IV. 

L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any 
market. 40 

Son. Then you '11 buy 'em to sell again. 

L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit ; and yet, 
i' faith, 
With wit enough for thee. 

Son. Was my father a traitor, mother ? 

L. Macd. Ay, that he was. 

Son. What is a traitor? 

L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. 

Son. And be all traitors that do so ? 

L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and 
must be hang'd. so 

Son. And must they all be hang'd that swear and 
lie? 

L. Macd. Every one. 

Son. Who must hang them ? 

L. Macd. Why, the honest men. 

Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools; for 
there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest 
men and hang up them. 

L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! 
But how wilt thou do for a father ? 59 

Son. If he were dead, you 'd weep for him : if you 
would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly 
have a new father. 

L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you 
known, 
Though in your state of honour I am perfect. 
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly : 

65. your state of honour = your position as a person of 
honour, of rank. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 73 

If you will take a homely man's advice, 

Be not found here ; hence, with your little ones. 

To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage ; 

To do worse to you were fell cruelty, 70 

Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve 

you! 
I dare abide no longer. [Exit. 

L. Macd. Whither should I fly ? 

I have done no harm. But I remember now 
I am in this earthly world ; where to do harm 
Is often laudable, to do good sometime 
Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas, 
Do I put up that womanly defence, 
To say I have done no harm ? 

Enter Murderers. 

What are these faces ? 
First Mur. Where is your husband ? 
L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified so 
Where such as thou mayst find him. 

First Mur. He 's a traitor. 

Son. Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain ! 

First Mur. What, you egg ! 

[Stabbing him. 

Young fry of treachery ! 

Son. He has kill'd me, mother : 

Run away, I pray you ! [Dies. 

[Exit Lady Macduff, crying " Murder ! " Exeunt Murderers, follow- 
ing her. 

Scene III. England. Before the King's palace. 
Enter Malcolm and Macduff. 
Mai. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and 
there 
Weep our sad bosoms empty. 



74 MA CBE TH. [Act IV. 

Macd. Let us rather 

Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men 
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom : each new morn 
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out 
Like syllable of dolour. 

Mai. What I believe I '11 wail, 

What know believe, and what I can redress, 
As I shall find the time to friend, I will. 10 

What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, 
Was once thought honest : you have loved him well. 
He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young; but 

something 
You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom 
To offer up a weak poor innocent lamb 
To appease an angry god. 

Macd. I am not treacherous. 

Mai. But Macbeth is. 

A good and virtuous nature may recoil 
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your par- 
don ; 20 
That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose : 
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : 
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, 
Yet grace must still look so. 

Macd. I have lost my hopes. 

4. birthdom = country and government in which we have a 
birthright. 

15. and wisdom, etc.: carelessly written for "and you may 
have wisdom enough." 

19. recoil = yield, succumb. 

20. [In an imperial charge : " in the execution of a royal 
commission." Dr. Johnson.] 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 75 

Mai. Perchance even there where I did find my 
doubts. 
Why in that rawness left you wife and child, 
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 
Without leave-taking ? I pray you, 
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, 
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, so 
Whatever I shall think. 

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country ! 

Great tyranny ! lay thou thy basis sure, 
For goodness dare not check thee : wear thou thy 

wrongs ; 
The title is affeer'd ! Fare thee well, lord : 
I would not be the villain that thou think'st 
For the whole space that 's in the tyrant's grasp, 
And the rich East to boot. 

Mai. Be not offended : 

I speak not as in absolute fear of you. 
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke ; 
It weeps, it bleeds ; and each new day a gash 40 

Is added to her wounds : I think withal 
There would be hands uplifted in my right ; 
And here from gracious England have I offer 
Of goodly thousands : but, for all this, 
When I shall tread*upon the tyrant's head, 
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 
Shall have more vices than it had before, 
More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, 
By him that shall succeed. 

Macd. What should he be ? 

Mai. It is myself I mean : in whom I know 50 

All the particulars of vice so grafted 
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth 
34. affeer'd — confirmed, made sure. 



76 MACBETH. [Act IV. 

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 
With my confineless harms. 

Macd. Not in the legions 

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd 
In evils to top Macbeth. 

Mai. I grant him bloody, 

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, 
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 
That has a name : but there 's no bottom, none, 60 

In my voluptuousness : your wives, your daughters, 
Your matrons and your maids, could not fill up 
The cistern of my lust, and my desire 
All continent impediments would o'erbear 
That did oppose my will : better Macbeth 
Than such an one to reign. 

Macd. Boundless intemperance 

In nature is a tyranny ; it hath been 
The untimely emptying of the happy throne 
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 
To take upon you what is yours : you may 70 

Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty, 
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. 
We have willing dames enough : there cannot be 
That vulture in you, to devour so m&ny 
As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 
Finding it so inclined. 

58. Luxurious = intemperately amorous : always used thus 
by Shakespeare. 

71. Convey your pleasures, etc. Forced as the sense is, 
we must accept this as meaning, enjoy secretly your pleasures. 
Shakespeare heedlessly used the word that he here caught from 
Holinshed, who makes Macduff reply, "And I shall convey the 
matter so wisely that thou shalt be so satisfied at thy pleasure 
in such secret wise," etc. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 77 

Mai. With this there grows 

In my most ill-compos'd affection such 
A stanchless avarice that, were I king, 
I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 
Desire his jewels and this other's house : so 

And my more-having would be as a sauce 
To make me hunger more ; that I should forge 
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
Destroying them for wealth. 

Macd. This avarice 

Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 
The sword of our slain kings : yet do not fear ; 
Scotland hath foisons to fill uj> your will, 
Of your mere own : all these are portable, 
With other graces weigh'd. 90 

Mai. But I have none : the king-becoming graces, 
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, 
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 
I have no relish of them, but abound 
In the division of each several crime, 
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 
Uproar the universal peace, confound 
All unity on earth. 

Macd. O Scotland, Scotland ! 100 

Mai. If such an one be fit to govern, speak : 
I am as I have spoken. 

77. [affection = disposition.] 

86. summer-seeming = passing like summer, hot and short. 

88. foisons = plenty ; rare in the plural. 

89. portable^ bearable. 

93. perseverance : accented on the second syllable. 



78 MACBETH. [Act IV. 

Macd. Fit to govern ! 

No, not to live. O nation miserable, 
With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd, 
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, 
Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
By his own interdiction stands accurs'd, 
And does blaspheme his breed ? Thy royal father 
Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee, 
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, no 

Died every day she lived. — Fare thee well ! 
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself 
Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast, 
Thy hope ends here ! 

Mai. Macduff, this noble passion, 

Child of integrity, hath from my soul 
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 
To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth 
By many of these trains hath sought to w r in me 
Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me 
From over-credulous haste : but God above 120 

Deal between thee and me ! for even now 
I put myself to thy direction, and 
Unspeak mine own detraction ; here abjure 
The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 
For strangers to my nature. I am yet 
Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, 
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, 
At no time broke my faith, would not betray 
The Devil to his fellow, and delight 
No less in truth than life : my first false speaking 130 
Was this upon myself : what I am truly, 
Is thine and my poor country's to command : 
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, 
108. blaspheme = slander. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 79 

Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, 
Already at a point, was setting forth. 
Now we '11 together ; and the chance of goodness 
Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent ? 
Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at 
once 
'T is hard to reconcile. 

Enter a Doctor. 

Mai. Well ; more anon. — Comes the King forth, 
I pray you ? uo 

Doct. Ay, sir ; there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
The great assay of art ; but at his touch — 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand — 
They presently amend. 

Mai. I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor. 

Macd. What 's the disease he means ? 

Mai. 'T is call'd the evil : 

A most miraculous work in this good king ; 
Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, 150 
All swoll'n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 
The mere despair of surgery, he cures, 
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
Put on with holy prayers : and 't is spoken, 
To the succeeding royalty he leaves 
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, 
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 
And sundry blessings hang about his throne, 
That speak him full of grace. 

135. at a point = ready ; as in the phrase " on the point of 
doing it." 

142. convinces = overcomes, as in Act I. Sc. 7, line 64. 
152. [mere = utter.] 



80 MA CBE TH. [Act IV. 

Enter Ross. 

Macd. See, who comes here ? 

Mai. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. igo 

Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. 

Mai. I know him now. Good God, betimes re- 
move 
The means that makes us strangers ! 

Ross. Sir, amen. 

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ? 

Ross. Alas, poor country ! 

Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot 
Be call'd our mother, but our grave ; where nothing, 
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ; 
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air 
Are made, not mark'd ; where violent sorrow seems 
A modern ecstasy : the dead man's knell no 

Is there scarce ask'd for who : and good men's lives 
Expire before the flowers in their caps, 
Dying or ere they sicken. 

Macd. O, relation 

Too nice, and yet too true ! 

Mai. What 's the newest grief ? 

Ross. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker : 
Each minute teems a new one. 

Macd. How does my wife ? 

Ross. Why, well. 

Macd. And all my children ? 

Ross. Well too. 

Macd. The tyrant has not batter 'd at their peace ? 

170. [modern = trite, common. On ecstasy see note, Act 
III. Sc. 2, line 22.] 

174. Too nice = too particular. 

177. children: pronounced childeren, of which it is a contrac- 
tion. It is a double plural. 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 81 

Ross. No ; they were well at peace when I did 
leave 'em. 

Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech : how 
goes 't ? 180 

Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings, 
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour 
Of many worthy fellows that were out ; 
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, 
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : 
Now is the time of help ; your eye in Scotland 
Would create soldiers, make our women fight, 
To doff their dire distresses. 

Mai. Be 't their comfort 

We 're coming thither : gracious England hath 
Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men ; 190 

An older and a better soldier none 
That Christendom gives out. 

Ross. Would I could answer 

This comfort with the like ! But I have words 
That would be howl'd out in the desert air, 
Where hearing should not latch them. 

Macd. What concern they? 

The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 
Due to some single breast? 

Ross. No mind that 's honest 

But in it shares some woe ; though the main part 
Pertains to you alone. 

Macd. If it be mine, 

Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 200 

Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 

183. that were out = in the field. 

195. latch = catch, apprehend. 

196. fee-grief = a grief held in fee; the absolute property of 
some one. 



82 MACBETH. [Act IV. Sc. III. 

Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
That ever yet they heard. 

Macd. Hum ! I guess at it. 

Ross, Your castle is surprised ; your wife and 
babes 
Savagely slaughter' d : to relate the manner, 
Were, on the quarry of these murder 'd deer, 
To add the death of you. 

Mai. . Merciful heaven ! 

What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows ; 
Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. 210 

Macd. My children too ? 

Ross. Wife, children, servants, all 

That could be found. 

Macd. And I must be from thence ! 

My wife kill'd too ? 

Boss. I have said. 

Mai. Be comforted : 

Let 's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
To cure this deadly grief. 

Macd. He has no children. All my pretty ones ? 
Did you say all ? O hell-kite ! All ? 
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
At one fell swoop ? 

Mai. Dispute it like a man. 

Macd. I shall do so ; 220 

But I must also feel it as a man : 
I cannot but remember such things were, 
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, 
And would not take their part ? Sinful Macduff, 
They were all struck for thee ! naught that I am, 

206. quarry = slaughtered heap. 

220. dispute = contend with, bear up against. 



Act V. Sc. I.J MACBETH. 83 

Not for their own demerits, but for mine, 

Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now ! 

Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword : let grief 
Convert to anger ; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 229 

Macd. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes 
And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself ; 
Within my sword's length set him ; if he 'scape, 
Heaven forgive him too ! 

Mai. This tune goes manly. 

Come, go we to the King ; our power is ready ; 
Our lack is nothing but our leave : Macbeth 
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you 
may : 239 

The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt. 



ACT V. 

Scene I. Dunsinane. Anteroom in the castle. 
Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting Gentlewoman. 

Doct. I have two nights watch'd with you, but can 
perceive no truth in your report. When was it she 
last walk'd ? 

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have 
seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon 

238, 239. [the powers above Put 011 their instruments. 
A passage of importance in the moral scheme of the play. Stee- 
vens explains it : "thrust forward us, their instruments, against 
the tyrant." He adds an illuminating quotation from Chapman's 
Iliad'. "For Jove makes Trojans instruments, and virtually then 
Wields arms himself."] 

5. night-gown = dressing gown, bedchamber gown. 



84 MACBETH. [ActV. 

her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write 
upon 't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return 
to bed ; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 

Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at 
once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watch- 
ing! In this slumb'ry agitation, besides her walking 
and other actual performances, what, at any time, 
have you heard her say ? 13 

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. 

Doct. You may to me : and 't is most meet you 
should. 

Gent. Neither to you nor any one ; having no wit- 
ness to confirm my sj)eech. 

Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper. 
Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise ; and, 
upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand close. 

Doct. How came she by that light ? 

Gent. Why, it stood by her ; she has light by her 
continually; 'tis her command. 23 

Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 

Gent. Ay, but their sense are shut. 

Doct. What is it she does now ? Look, how she 
rubs her hands. 

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem 
thus washing her hands : I have known her continue 
in this a quarter of an hour. 30 

Lady M. Yet here 's a spot. 

Doct. Hark ! she speaks : I will set down what 

19. [her very guise : her accustomed manner.] 
25. their sense are shut. Shakespeare should have written 
" is shut;" but there is no evidence that he did; and I feel sure 
that he did not. [Walker notes that plurals of nouns ending in 
s, ss, se, and ce are found without the usual addition of s or es. 
Compare Merchant of Venice, Act IV. Sc. 1: "Are there bal- 
ance here ? "] 



Scene I.] MACBETH. 85 

comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more 
strongly. 

Lady M. Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! — One : 
two : why, then 't is time to do 't. — Hell is murky ! 

— Fie, my lord, fie ! a soldier, and af eard ? What 
need we fear who knows it, when none can call our 
power to account ? — Yet who would have thought the 
old man to have had so much blood in him. 40 

Doct. Do you mark that ? 

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife : where is 
she now ? — What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? 

— No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that : you 
mar all with this starting. 

Doct. Go to, go to ; you have known what you 
should not. 

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am 
sure of that : heaven knows what she has known. 49 

Lady M. Here 's the smell of the blood still : all 
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little 
hand. Oh, oh, oh ! 

Doct. What a sigh is there ! The heart is sorely 
charged. 

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom 
for the dignity of the whole body. 

Doct. Well, well, well, — 

Gent. Pray God it be, sir. 6i 

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I 
have known those which have walk'd in their sleep 
who have died holily in their beds. 

Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your night- 
gown ; look not so pale. — I tell you yet again, Ban- 
quo 's buried ; he cannot come out on 's grave. 

Doct. Even so? 

Lady M. To bed, to bed ! there 's knocking at the 



86 MA CBE TH. [Act V. 

gate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand. 
What 's done cannot be undone. — To bed, to bed, to 
bed ! [***■ 

Doct. Will she go now to bed ? ™ 

Gent. Directly. 

Doct. Foul whisp'rings are abroad : unnatural deeds 
Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds 
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 
More needs she the divine than the physician. 
God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; 
Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night : 
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. 79 

I think, but dare not speak. 

Gent. Good night, good doctor. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. The country near Dunsinane. 

Brum and colours. Enter Menteith, Caithness. Angus, Lennox, 
and Soldiers. 

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Mal- 
colm, 
His uncle Siward and the good Macduff : 
Revenges burn in them ; for their dear causes 
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 
Excite the mortified man. 

Ang. Near Birnam wood 

Shall we well meet them ; that way are they coming. 
Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his 
brother ? 

77. annoyance = self-injury. 

79. mated = dazed, dumfounded. 

5. the mortified man = the ascetic, the man who has morti- 
fied his flesh. [It is also explained as "the dead man;" and 
bleeding is referred to the superstition that the wounds of a 
murdered man bled in the presence of his murderer.] 



Scene IL] MACBETH. 87 

Len. For certain, sir, he is not : I have a file 
Of all the gentry : there is Si ward's son, 
And many unrough youths that even now 10 

Protest their first of manhood. 

Merit. What does the tyrant ? 

Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : 
Some say he 's mad ; others that lesser hate him 
Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, 
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause 
Within the belt of rule. 

Ang. Now does he feel 

His secret murthers sticking on his hands ; 
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach ; 
Those he commands move only in command, 
Nothing: in love : now does he feel his title 20 

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 
Upon a dwarfish thief. 

Ment. Who then shall blame 

His pester'd senses to recoil and start, 
When all that is within him does condemn 
Itself for being there ? 

Caith. Well, march we on, 

To give obedience where 't is truly owed : 
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, 
And with him pour we in our country's purge 
Each drop of us. 

Len. Or so much as it needs, 

To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 30 
Make we our march towards Birnam. [Exeunt, marching. 

10. unrough = unbearded. 

27. medicine = healing remedy; not the French medecin 
= leech, physician. Shakespeare never uses the word in that 



88 MA CBE TH. [Act V. 

Scene III. Dunsinane. A room, in the castle. 
Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 

Mad). Bring me no more reports ; let them fly all : 
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, 
I cannot taint with fear. What 's the boy Malcolm ? 
Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know 
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus : 
" Fear not, Macbeth ; no man that 's born of woman 
Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false 

thanes, 
And mingle with the English epicures : 
The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 10 

Enter a Servant. 

The Devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon ! 
Where got'st thou that goose look ? 

Serv. There is ten thousand — 

Macb. Geese, villain ? 

Serv. Soldiers, sir. 

Macb. Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, 
Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch ? 
Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey -face? 

Serv. The English force, so please you. 

Macb. Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant. 

Seyton ! — I am sick at heart, 
When I behold — Seyton, I say ! — This push 20 

Will chair me ever, or disseat me now. 

15. patch = fool. Jesters wore patched or party-colored 
clothes. 

21. Will chair me : the folio "cheer me." [The first folio 
reads "dis-eate;" the other folios " disease," which Dr. Fur- 
ness plausibly makes " dis-ease.' ' This reading would manifestly 



Scene III.] MACBETH. 89 

I have lived long enough : my way of life 
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf ; 
And that which should accompany old age, 
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, 
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath, 
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. 
Seyton ! 

Enter Seyton. 

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure ? 

Macb. What news more ? 30 

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. 

Macb. I '11 fight till from my bones my flesh be 
hack'd. 
Give me my armour. 

Sey. 'T is not needed yet. 

Macb. I '11 put it on. 
Send out more horses ; skirr the country round ; 
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. 
How does your patient, doctor ? 

Doct. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 
That keep her from her rest. 

Macb. Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 40 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain 
And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon the heart ? 

accompany " cheer." " Cheer . . . dis-ease " may perhaps be 
preferred, as having relation to one of the essential metaphors 
of the play. See Suggestions for Special Study.] 

22. my way of life. Dr. Johnson proposed " my May of 
life," very speciously. 



90 MACBETH. [Act V. 

Doct. Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself. 

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs ; I '11 none of it. 
Come, put mine armour on ; give me my staff. 
Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. 
Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast so 
The water of my land, find her disease, 
And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
I would applaud thee to the very echo, 
That should applaud again. — Pull't off, I say. — 
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, 
Would scour these English hence ? Hear'st thou of 
them ? 

Doct. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation 
Makes us hear something. 

Macb. Bring it after me. 

I will not be afraid of death and bane, 
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. eo 

Doct. [A side. ] Were I from Dunsinane away 
and clear, 
Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt 

Scene IV. Country near Birnam wood. 

Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and his Son, Mac- 
duff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Sol- 
diers, marching. 
Mai. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 

That chambers will be safe. 

48. staflF= leading staff, baton. 

49. Doctor, etc. Macbeth addresses this speech fitfully, now 
to the physician, and now to the attendant who is putting on his 
armor. 

61, 62. These lines are surely a tag added to please the actor 
who played the doctor. 
2. chambers = bedrooms. 



Scene V.] MACBETH. 91 

Ment. We doubt it nothing. 

Siw. What wood is this before us ? 

Ment. The wood of Birnam. 

Mai. Let every soldier hew him down a bough 
And bear 't before him : thereby shall we shadow 
The numbers of our host and make discovery 
Err in report of us. 

Soldiers. It shall be done. 

Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 
Our setting down before 't. 

Mai. 'T is his main hope : 10 

For where there is advantage to be gain'd, 
Both more and less have given him the revolt, 
And none serve with him but constrained things 
Whose hearts are absent too. 

Macd. Let our just censures 

Attend the true event, and put we on 
Industrious soldiership. 

Siw. The time approaches 

That will with due decision make us know 
What we shall say we have and what we owe. 
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate : 20 

Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. 

Scene V. Dunsinane. Within the castle. 
Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and colours. 
Macb. Hang out our banners on the outward 
walls ; 
The cry is still " They come : " our castle's strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn : here let them lie 
Till famine and the ague eat them up : 

12. more and less — great and small, everybody. 



92 MACBETH. [ActV. 

Were they not forced with those that should be ours, 
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, 
And beat them backward home. [A cry of women within. 

What is that noise ? 

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit. 

Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : 
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 10 
To hear a night-shriek ; and my fell of hair 
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 
As life were in 't : I have supp'd full with horrors ; 
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, 
Cannot once start me. 

Re-enter Seyton. 

Wherefore was that cry ? 

Sey. The Queen, my lord, is dead. 

Macb. She should have died hereafter ; 
There would have been a time for such a word. 
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 20 

To the last syllable of recorded time, 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! 
Life 's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 

5. forced = given strength, reinforced. 

17. [She should have died hereafter = it was ordained 
that she should die, hereafter, if not now ; it had to be, at some 
time. It is usual to deliver this passage with emotion, as if it 
meant " she ought not to have died now." Nothing could be 
farther from the apathetic spirit of the entire scene. If we 
insist upon making should have equivalent to " ought to have," 
the sentence must be taken merely as the reflection, " She dies 
before her time ; " not as the cry of need, " I cannot spare her 
now ! " Sir Henry Irving is so anxious to convey the proper 
impression here, that he says " would have died."] 



Scene V.] MACBETH. 93 

And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing. 

Enter a Messenger. 

Thou com'st to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. 

Mess. Gracious my lord, 3ft 

I should report that which I say I saw, 
But know not how to do it. 

Maob. Well, say, sir. 

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, 
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, 
The wood began to move. 

Macb. Liar and slave ! 

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : 
Within this three mile may you see it coming ; 
I say, a moving grove. 

Macb. If thou speak' st false, 

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, 
Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, 40 

I care not if thou dost for me as much. 
I pull in resolution, and begin 
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend 
That lies like truth : " Fear not, till Birnam wood 
Do come to Dunsinane : " and now a wood 
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out ! 
If this which he avouches does appear, 
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 
I gin to be aweary of the sun, 

And wish the estate o' th' world were now undone. 5JK 
Ring the alarum-bell ! Blow, wind ! come, wrack ! 
At least we '11 die with harness on our back. [Exeunt. 

40. cling = shrivel. 

42. pull in = check, as a horse is checked. 



94 MACBETH. [Act V. 

Scene VI. Dims inane. Before the castle. 

Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, and 
their Army, with boughs. 

Mai. Now near enough : your leafy screens throw 
down, 
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, 
Shall, with my cousin, your right-noble son, 
Lead our first battle : worthy Macduff and we 
Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, 
According to our order. 

Siw. Fare you well. 

Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all 
breath, 
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. 10 

[Exeunt. 

Scene VII. Another part of the field. 
Alarums. Enter Macbeth. 
Macb. They have tied me to a stake ; I cannot fly, 
But, bear-like, I must fight the course. What 's he 
That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
Am I to fear, or none. 

Enter young Siward. 
Yo. Siw. What is thy name ? 
Macb. Thou 'It be afraid to hear it. 

Yo. Siw. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter 
name 
Than any is in hell. 

Macb. My name 's Macbeth. 

4. [battle : here a body of troops, a division of an army. So 
Holinshed : "He divided the same into three battels."] 



Scene VII.] MACBETH. 95 

Yo. Siw. The Devil himself could not pronounce 
a title 
More hateful to mine ear. 

Madb. No, nor more fearful. 

Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant ; with my 
sword 10 

I '11 prove the lie thou speak'st. 

[They fight and young Siicard is slain. 

Mad). Thou wast born of woman. 

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
Brandish'd by man that 's of a woman born. [Exit. 
Alarums. Enter Macduff. 

Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy 
face ! 
If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, 
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 
Are hired to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 
Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge w 

I sheathe again undeeded. There thou should'st be ; 
By this great clatter, one of greatest note 
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune ! 

And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums. 

Enter Malcolm and old Siward. 

Siw. This way, my lord ; the castle 's gently ren- 
der'd : 
The tyrant's people on both sides do fight ; 
The noble thanes do bravely in the war ; 
The day almost itself professes yours, 
And little is to do. 

Mai. We have met with foes 

That strike beside us. 

Siw. Enter, sir, the Castle. [Exeunt. Alarums. 

18. staves — spear-staves. 



96 MACBETH. [ActV. 

Scene VIII. Another part of the field. 
Enter Macbeth. 

Mad). Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
On mine own sword ? whiles I see lives, the gashes 
Do better upon them. 

Enter Macduff 

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn ! 

Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee : 
But get thee back ; my soul is too much charged 
With blood of thine already. 

Macd. I have no words : 

My voice is in my sword : thou bloodier villain 
Than terms can give thee out! [They fight. 

Macb. Thou losest labour : 

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed : 10 
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests ; 
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 
To one of woman born. 

Macd. Despair thy charm ; 

And let the angel whom thou still hast serv'd 
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 
Untimely ripp'd. 

Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, 
For it hath cow'd my better part of man ! 
And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 
That palter with us in a double sense ; v 

That keep the word of promise to our ear, 
And break it to our hope. I '11 not fight with thee. 

Macd. Then yield thee, coward, 
And live to be the show and gaze o' th' time : 
We '11 have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 

9. [intrenchant =r not to be cut, indivisible.] 



Scene VIII.] MA CBETH. 97 

Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, 
" Here may you see the tyrant." 

Macb. I will not yield, 

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 
And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 30 

And thou opposed, being of no woman born, 
Yet I will try the last. Before my body 
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, 
And damn'd be him that first cries " Hold, enough ! " 

[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. 

Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Malcolm, old 
Siward, Ross, the other Thanes and Soldiers. 

Mai. I would the friends we miss were safe ar- 
rived. 

Siw. Some must go off : and yet, by these I see, 
So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 

Mai. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 

Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt: 
He only lived but till he was a man ; 40 

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd 
In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
But like a man he died. 

Siw. Then he is dead ? 

Moss. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of 
sorrow 
Must not be measured by his worth ; for then 
It hath no end. 

Siw. Had he his hurts before ? 

Ross. Ay, on the front. 

Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he ! 

Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
I would not wish them to a fairer death : 
And so, his knell is knoll'd. 



98 MA CBETH. [Act V. Sc. VIII. 

Mai. He 's worth more sorrow, so 

And that I'll spend for him. 

Shu. He 's worth no more : 

They say he parted well, and paid his score : 
And so, God be with him ! Here comes newer com- 
fort. 

Re-enter Macduff, and Soldiers bearing Macbeth's head on a spear. 

Macd. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold, where 
stands 
The usurper's cursed head : the time is free : 
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, 
That speak my salutation in their minds ; 
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine : 
Hail, King of Scotland ! 

All. Hail, King of Scotland. [Flourish. 

Mai. We shall not spend a large expense of time 
Before we reckon with your several loves, 6i 

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, 
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland 
In such an honour named. What 's more to do, 
Which would be planted newly with the time, 
As calling home our exiled friends abroad 
That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ; 
Producing forth the cruel ministers 
Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 
Who, as 't is thought, by self and violent hands 70 
Took off her life ; this, and what needful else 
That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, 
We will perform in measure, time and place : 
So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. 

[Flourish. Exeunt. 

63. be earls, the first, etc. Thus Holinshed makes him spy. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 

Relation of the Play to History. The real history of the 
life of Macbeth will prove only a source of confusion to the 
student. Shakespeare did not know it. Basing his work 
on Holinshed's Chronicle, he did not even care to follow 
that consistently. " Shakespeare," says Professor Corson, 
" always brought an independent dramatic purpose to the 
adopted story or history, by which dramatic purpose the 
movement of the play is determined." Not even from Hol- 
inshed, then, can we obtain new light upon action or char- 
acter ; the thing to be gained by examining the Chronicle is 
a notion of Shakespeare's method of work, — his principle 
of selection, his ethical and artistic aim. When he devi- 
ates from his original, we should seek his reason, moral 
or aesthetic. 

Duration of the Action. In regard to the time covered 
by the action, the usual puzzle presents itself, — the incon- 
sistency of " Shakespeare's two clocks." (For a full expla- 
nation see the Furness Variorum Othello, or, for a briefer 
one, the Introduction to The Merchant of Venice, in this 
series.) Note the many touches that seem to spur on, with 
fierce rapidity, an action that really demands years. 

Genuineness of the Text. The portions rejected by Mr. 
White are Act III. sc. v. ; Act IV. sc. i. lines 1-48, also 
from " Sweet bodements," line 96, to " mortal custom," 
and lines 125-132 ; Act IV. sc. iii. lines 140-159 ; and Act 
V. sc. viii. lines 35-75. The Clarendon Press editors are 
even more radical ; but it is noticeable that they retain Act 
IV. sc. i. lines 1-48, and suspect Act I. sc. ii. 

Notwithstanding differences of opinion among scholars, 
the student is here advised to consider the play as an 



100 MACBETH. 

organic whole. It will be found, when carefully studied, 
to have a wonderful aesthetic and moral unity. The only 
passages which seriously mar this unity occur in Act I. sc. 
ii., Act III. sc. v., and the brief part of Hecate in Act IV. 
sc. i. lines 39-43. These will be examined in their order. 

Act I. sc. i. " The true reason for the first appearance 
of the Witches," says Coleridge, " is to strike the keynote 
of the character of the whole drama." The scene, there- 
fore, briefly and boldly presents two essential ideas, as 
a preparation for all that is to follow. We are immedi- 
ately confronted by something out of nature ; for the deeds 
represented in this play are to be " 'gainst nature still." 
Compare Act II. sc. ii. (iv. according to the folio). At the 
same time we are made aware that this unnatural element 
is wholly evil. It is not above nature, in the literal sense 
of supernatural ; it is a contradiction, a reversal of nature. 
In greater measure than any other work of Shakespeare, 
Macbeth is the tragedy of a false, a reversed standard. 
Hence we have as prelude the Witches' muttered creed, — 
not lightly introduced as a jingling charm, but full of deep 
and dreadful significance : " Fair is foul, and foul is fair." 
Compare the austere denunciation in Isaiah, chapter v. 20 : 
" Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that 
put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put 
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! " 

It is interesting to trace these two associated ideas — the 
"breach in nature " and the reversal of the moral standard 
— through the rhetoric of the play ; for in Shakespeare the 
great root-ideas are always budding out into the rhetoric. 
It seems, to change the figure, as if a central light were 
reflected in a series of word-mirrors. It would be well to 
make a list of the instances in which these two notes are 
again struck. 

Sc. ii. The speech of Ross, lines 50-53, seems to imply 
that Cawdor was present on the field. If so, he was taken 



SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 101 

prisoner by Macbeth ; and as he is executed by Duncan's 
order before Macbeth's arrival at Forres (see sc. iv.), the 
situation becomes hard to explain. The utterances of Mac- 
beth in sc. iii. (lines 72-73, 107-108) also become unintelli- 
gible ; and it is certainly absurd for the vaguely informed 
Angus to assure Macbeth that his prisoner is a traitor. We 
are thus driven to conclude (1) that the passage in the 
present scene does not mean that Cawdor was in the battle, 
but that he is known by Ross to have given Norway secret 
assistance (see the ambiguous statements of Angus, sc. iii. 
lines 111-114) ; or (2) that the scene, which is compara- 
tively poor, was written by some one who had not mastered 
Shakespeare's design ; or (3) that Shakespeare himself has 
fallen into inconsistency through haste. In any case, we 
must not use a strained interpretation in an undoubted and 
masterly scene, such as sc. iii., to make it conform to one 
which is certainly inferior and possibly ungenuine. 

Sc. Hi. Here we see the comprehensiveness of the Witches' 
love of evil ; to them the pettiest act of malignity seems as 
dear as an " imperial theme." — What are these foul, un- 
natural creatures, who know the future ? In Holinshed 
Macbeth is greeted by " three women in strange and wild 
apparel, resembling creatures of elder world ; " afterwards, 
"the common opinion was, that these women were either 
the weird sisters, that is . . . the goddesses of destinie, or 
else some nymphs or fairies." They are quite distinct from 
the " wizards, in whose words he put great confidence," of 
the latter part of the story. Shakespeare has chosen to 
blend these two elements ; the same strange beings who 
meet Macbeth upon the heath are sought by him in Act IV. 
Notice the gain in compactness and concreteness. But the 
fusion creates a puzzle. By their speeches these are clearly 
witches, of the type believed in by Shakespeare's country- 
men in his day ; yet they are called " the weird sisters " — 
the Fate Sisters. The question arises, to what extent did 
Shakespeare intend these mysterious women to represent 
Destiny ? 

I 



102 MACBETH. 

We may safely answer, not to such an extent that Mac- 
beth's free-will is fettered. " Only free agency is dra- 
matic." (Corson.) (Note that the strange power of the 
Witches is strangely limited ; the first Witch is powerless 
to wreck the ship ; she can only toss it with tempest, and 
drain the sleepless shipman " dry as hay.") But when once 
the will, originally free, has turned toward evil, it finds 
in the external world a startling assistance and accelera- 
tion. (See Lady Macbeth's exclamation, sc. v. lines 45-76.) 
These Witches embody, suggests Professor Dowden, " the 
powers auxiliary to vice existing outside ourselves." They 
help at the birth of evil deeds ; and then, in truth, those 
deeds become Destiny. 

' ' Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 

When Macbeth enters, he is speaking to Banquo of the 
day just ending. The words of both are careless ; Mac- 
beth's may refer to the foul weather and the fair event of 
the fight, or perhaps altogether to the battle, — "a day so 
foul with slaughter, so fair in glory, I have never yet seen." 
The important point is, that the words recall to us, like a 
strain of music, the creed of the Witches ; and that we are 
also made to feel that the day is a supreme one for Macbeth. 
He has done his noblest deeds ; his sword has twice saved 
his country. But before the sun sets, the lust of power 
which he has secretly indulged is to be strangely stimulated ; 
it is not only the fairest day, but the foulest, the closest to 
the forces of evil, his life has yet known. 

Why does Macbeth start (line 51) ? Not because the 
thought of the throne is new to him ; rather because it 
is not new. (For absolute proof of this, see sc. vii. lines 
47-52. Yet a man's hidden communings with his own 
heart do not wholly commit him to an action, either good or 
evil ; and a confidence made to his wife was little more than 
self-communing. Whatever he may have breathed of reso- 
lution. — may even impulsively have sworn, — Macbeth is 



SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 103 

not resolved.) Plainly, the cause of his present agitation is 
the sudden discovery that he has not dreamed and plotted 
to himself alone ; that some strange external agency has 
entered into league with him, without his knowledge. A 
sense that the occasion which seemed remote is imminent, 
that a shadowy Accomplice (now spoken of as " chance," 
but later as " the common enemy of man ") is somehow 
thrusting it upon him, — this it is which fills him with per- 
turbation and horror. 

Read this scene intently, as if you were to play Macbeth's 
part, and must understand the source of each utterance. 
In the soliloquy, lines 127-142, first appears that overmas- 
tering power of the imagination which is Macbeth's chief 
characteristic, and the main cause, first of his hesitation, 
and afterward of his precipitancy in action. In this, as 
in his emotional tendency, Macbeth is distinctly a Celt. — 
Notice his bewilderment, his confusion as to what is foul 
and what is fair. Finally he hurls the whole entangle- 
ment from him, with a touch of fatalism, casting all upon 
"chance" and future time. — Follow Banquo through the 
scene, and observe his natural, manly demeanor. 

Sc. iv. Dramatic irony occurs when the persons of the 
play are ignorant of facts known to the reader or the audi- 
ence, and therefore speak or act in a strikingly inappropri- 
ate way. Note here Duncan's words to Macbeth, immedi- 
ately following his speech about Cawdor. What feeling 
rises in the reader ? This expedient is presently repeated ; 
notice where. Find examples of it in sc. vi., and a very 
impressive one in Act II. sc. i. (iii. in the folio). — See 
note on line 39. This point, often slighted, is important. 

Sc. v. Observe Lady Macbeth's singleness of purpose. 
Her nature, as compared with Macbeth's, is simple and 
balanced ; all her powers work together. She is rapid, 
clear, and direct of thought, and her will is as strong as 
steel. Her standard is evident ; she " has chosen evil to 
be her good ; " hence to her " fair is foul." (Lines 13-14. 



104 MACBETH. 

Is her judgment of Macbeth correct?) Notice that she is 
confident that Macbeth shares her view of life, and covets 
the crown ; (see also sc. vii. line 42 — a very important 
line). -She believes that he is not really repelled by the 
thought of Duncan's murder, but merely unwilling to con- 
nect himself with it. (Lines 21-22.) Is there anything in 
the play to show that her ambition is for herself alone ? 

The terrible passage, lines 37-51, is really an evil prayer 
— a cry to external powers of evil for reinforcement in 
evil. We do not cry out thus for that which is not needed. 
Can one imagine Goneril or Regan putting up such a prayer ? 
What are we to conclude as to this woman's original na- 
ture ? — was it " fiend-like," or had it the possibilities of 
the average womanhood ? (Notice, on this point, Act II. 
sc. ii. in folio, lines 13-14, — a revelation of character as 
by a flash of lightning.) If we regard such speeches as the 
present, and sc. vii. lines 54-59, as a wilful violation of na- 
ture, doubly violent from the effort involved, they become 
highly suggestive. 

Sc. vi. The exquisite beauty of lines 1-10 needs no 
comment. For a fine analysis of the epithet "temple- 
haunting," see Lowell, Shakespeare Once More, iii. 45. — 
Why does Macbeth not appear in this scene ? Does it not 
seem, from his non-appearance, and from his brief speeches 
in sc. v., that though he was apparently resolved at the end 
of sc. iv., his long, lonely ride had given him a chance to 
reflect and to waver ? 

Sc. vii. The student should carefully analyze this solilo- 
quy. It divides itself into five finished portions, and a 
sixth which is interrupted. Where is there an expression 
of a lingering sense of moral responsibility ? Is the argu- 
ment in lines 16-25 against killing Duncan because " he 
hath been clear in his great office," or because " his virtues 
will plead like angels " with the people against his mur- 
derer? What consideration is really holding back Macbeth, 
and how does Lady Macbeth remove it ? 



SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 105 

In the energy of the action we hardly feel the immense 
pathos of this scene. For whatever reasons, Macbeth had 
concluded to " proceed no further." It is his wife who 
urges him on to crime and ruin ; and we cannot doubt that 
she does it in love of him. Her sharp speech is only a goad, 
to drive him to the deed which she believes best for him, — 
terrible thought ! Her act is like the pushing of a boulder, 
which hangs balanced, over a precipice ; after that one 
impulse, nothing can stay it, and it gathers impetus as it 
goes. — What words of Macbeth here mark the climax ? 

Act II. sc. i. [In folio, i. and ii.] Throughout this su- 
perb scene there is a contrast between the emotional and 
imaginative Macbeth, and his wife, who is not only far 
less emotional and imaginative, but who has all her powers 
under the control of an inflexible will. It must be strongly 
emphasized that this is a contrast of organization, and not 
of moral condition. At the end of the scene we cannot 
justly pronounce that Macbeth is remorseful, his wife in- 
capable of remorse ; judgment must be reserved until the 
end of the play. — In what succession of incidents is the 
contrast developed ? 

[Sc. iii. in folio.] See De Quincey's essay " On the 
Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth." His subtle explana- 
tion of the effect of the knocking applies equally to the 
introduction of the Porter. 

Notice line 73. Lady Macbeth is playing a part, yet 
cannot escape from her own individuality. Her attention 
has so long been exclusively fixed upon " our house," that 
if she were not actively wicked she would still be narrow 
and unsympathetic. How does her speech strike Banquo ? 
What act has Macbeth committed that formed no part of 
the original plan ? What is the immediate effect of that 
act upon Macduff ? It is at this point that Lady Macbeth 
swoons, — "not in feigning, but in fact," says Professor 
Dowden. Can you find a probable cause for her swoon ? 



106 MACBETH. 

Act III. We are now to mark widely different effects of 
the great crime, as shown in Macbeth and in Lady Macbeth. 
Macbeth's chief source of torment is the reflection that 
Banquo's issue will rule in the kingdom, and the attendant 
fear that the knowledge of this fact may awaken ambition 
in Banquo himself. Macbeth's mind is " full of scorpions," 
yet he does not despair. He cherishes the false notion 
that he may yet establish himself firmly and happily on 
the throne. (See sc. iv. lines 21—23. Find other passages 
that confirm the analysis just given.) Lady Macbeth ap- 
parently indulges no such idea ; she has exerted her en- 
ergies once for all, and gained " the ornament of life," 
only to find it worthless ; " nought 's had, all 's spent." 
This is the tone of despair — a despair concealed from her 
husband. — Before Duncan's murder Lady Macbeth was 
the impelling force. Now she no longer urges or even sug- 
gests action ; unless we accept as a suggestion the vague 
reflection, — thrown out with an idea of comforting Macbeth 
for the moment, and changing the current of his thoughts, 
— that in Banquo and Fleance " nature's copy 's not 
eterne." Macbeth, on the contrary, in the fatuous pride of 
his new independence, concealing his plans from his wife, 
hurries on from crime to crime with increasing impetus. 
(See sc. iv. lines 136-140.) His compunction has entirely 
disappeared ; and there is a new development, — the mur- 
derous cunning which he displays in his conversation with 
the assassins of Banquo. (Find touches of a growing 
pleasure in evil, in his speeches in this Act ; to what root- 
idea does this carry us back?) The student may trace 
through the remainder of the play evidences of the increas- 
ing precipitancy of Macbeth's action. Find one line in sc. 
ii. spoken by Macbeth which would serve as a summary of 
the special theme of this Act, and at the same time as an 
explanation of his entire future course. Find a speech of 
his to Lady Macbeth in which he takes a certain mascu- 
line attitude of superiority in action, which is precisely the 



SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 107 

reverse of his attitude in Acts I. and II. In what speeches 
of Lady Macbeth, Act I. sc. v., might we have marked 
this note of conscious superiority in action ? 

What glimpses have we, in Acts III. and IV., of the 
working out of the sentence pronounced by the imaginary 
voice, " Macbeth shall sleep no more " ? 

In sc. iv. Lady Macbeth displays all her old presence of 
mind and self-control, and uses her former method with 
Macbeth, endeavoring, for his own sake, to sting him into 
self-command by a show of contempt. This method proves 
ineffective now ; but she retains her firm grasp of her own 
faculties till she has, as gracefully and plausibly as possi- 
ble, dismissed the guests. Then, indeed, we recognize her 
utter surrender, in the brief, exhausted answers she gives 
to Macbeth's half-delirious questions. From this point she 
makes no attempt to prompt, to guide, or to check his 
action ; he is quite beyond her. 

Is the ghost in the banquet-scene the strongest of Mac- 
beth's hallucinations, in the same class as the dagger and 
the voice ? Or are we to regard it as an objective appari- 
tion, to be represented on the stage ? Try to ascertain the 
usage of great actors. This cannot be conclusive, but may 
be taken as testimony. 

Sc. v. This scene is manifestly inferior. It is needless 
to the plot, and reduces the Witches to subordinates, thus 
destroying the impressiveness of what has gone before. 
Hecate is one of Middleton's characters in The Witch : see 
Introduction. 

Act IV. sc. i. Whatever difference of opinion may exist 
as to lines 1-38, — which are certainly vigorous enough, — 
there will probably be little hesitation in ascribing the 
entire part of Hecate to Middleton. If we regard the 
incantation as Shakespeare's, its accumulated hideousness 
is an insistence on the fairness, to the Witches, of all foul 
things. Notice the power of Macbeth's conjuration, lines 



108 MACBETH. 

50-60, and its consistency with certain touches of imperious 
and passionate selfishness in Act III. scenes ii. and iv. ; find 
these instances, and another in Act V. sc. v. It is here as 
if Macbeth felt himself at odds with the laws of the universe, 
and yet, in his delusion, dreamed of overbearing them by 
his savage will. Note the growth of this insubordinate will 
since Act I. 

Sc. ii. Hitherto the effect of Macbeth's crimes on him- 
self has been chiefly emphasized ; the rest of this Act shows 
the far-reaching effect on others. — How pathetic are Lady 
Macduff's reproaches, contrasted with her loyal anger in 
line 80 ; and the quips of the over-shrewd boy, who flashes 
out at last his tiny spark of knightly rage, and dies with his 
shrill, love-prompted cry of " Mother, run away, I pray 
you ! " It was necessary to prepare us, by this scene, for 
the full force of Macduff's speeches in the last part of sc. iii., 
and by the whole episode to bring home to the imagination 
the sorrows of all Scotland. What would the generaliza- 
tions of Macduff and Ross effect without this presentation ? 

Sc. iii. The dialogue between Malcolm and Macduff is 
taken almost bodily from Holinshed. The situation is 
strained, but the dramatic effect is unquestionable. — One 
of the finest passages in the play is the exclamation of 
Macduff, lines 216-219. Try to explain its power. "He 
has no children ; " of whom is Macduff speaking ? 

In regard to lines 140-159, Mr. White says, " This pas- 
sage about the king's-evil has the air of an addition, for the 
special purpose of flattering James when the tragedy was 
played before him." Before finally adopting, however, a 
conclusion which cheapens the passage, it is well to consider 
other possible reasons for the introduction of such an epi- 
sode. Throughout the play one of Shakespeare's favorite 
metaphors is significantly repeated, — the comparison of 
a man's individual being, sometimes spiritual, sometimes 
physical, to the State, and vice versa. Find this, possibly, 
in Act I. sc. iii. line 140 ; certainly in a corresponding passage 
in Julius Ccesar, Act II. sc. i. lines 67-69. (In what 



SUGGESTIONS FOR SPECIAL STUDY. 109 

lines in Macbeth, Act V. scenes ii. and iii. is the same idea 
suggested ?) As there is evidently, through Acts IV. and 
V., a contrasting of the beneficence of true sovereignty with 
the ruin wrought by a bad king, it does not seem strange 
that, to balance the presentation of a " tyrant, whose sole 
name blisters our tongues," we should have a royal healer 
of evil, a holy king whose very touch has power to cure the 
diseases of his subjects. 

Act V. sc. i. We recognize with a startled awe the subtle 
poetical justice of this scene, remembering the suggestion of 
an outraged sanctity of nature in " Macbeth doth murder 
sleep." It was Lady Macbeth who breathed the first word 
of this outrage : " When Duncan is asleep," — and now 
avenging Sleep at last betrays to others her husband's 
secret, which it has been the aim of her later life to guard. 
— Find speeches in former Acts corresponding to each of 
her utterances here. She is living it all over again, but 
"with a difference." In Act II. she was able, by a tre- 
mendous exertion of will, to suppress her natural horror, 
even her disgust at the physical consequences of the crime. 
But now we see her while the will is off guard ; and we 
know at last that the awful scene was burning itself into 
her brain, even while she was speaking the coldest words to 
her husband. What former speech contrasts pathetically 
with lines 50-51, showing us by a flash the great gulf of 
experience that lies between the two moments ? 

Notice the indications, in the latter part of the play, that 
Lady Macbeth took her own life. What is Macbeth's view 
of suicide ? 

Sc. iii. The almost insane confidence of Macbeth has 
grown from the germ seen in Act III., the delusion that 
there is a possibility of making his state "whole as the 
marble." This delusion has increased in strength, and to 
it has been added the influence of the Witches' mislead- 
ing prophecies. But we find, alternating with this mad 
confidence, signs of a great weariness. There is something 



110 MACBETH. 

strangely piteous in Macbeth's complaints of the bareness of 
his autumnal " way of life ; " he is almost child-like in his 
inability to connect effect with cause, and his welling self- 
pity. 

Sc. iv. The Birnam wood episode, displaying the cun- 
ning of Malcolm, is taken from Holinshed. 

Sc. v. On hearing " the cry of women," Macbeth himself 
observes how callous he has become ; and on learning of the 
queen's death, he gives the fullest expression to his world- 
weariness. This beautifully poetic passage must always be 
understood as dramatic ; it is Macbeth's verdict on life ; for 
the traitor and murderer all is confusion, " a general mist 
of error." 

Scenes vi., vii., and viii. are practically one — the battle. 
In sc. viii. Macbeth's mad confidence is struck dead by 
Macduff's revelation. (What warning utterance of Ban- 
quo's, in Act L, is recalled by lines 19-22 ?) The only thing 
that survives in the wreck of Macbeth's manhood is his 
physical bravery, which makes it possible for us to bear the 
horror of his end. He dies like a wild beast at bay ; his 
last savage cry, as he hurls himself upon Macduff, is less 
insupportable than the whimper of cowardice would have 
been. 

Shakespeare found in the English part of Holinshed's 
Chronicle the touching episode of the death of young 
Siward, — " right-noble," " with all his hurts before," — 
and the reception of the tidings by the grim father who 
freely gives his son to be " God's soldier." The passage 
seems to have been introduced at this point, to give us a 
needed breath of the bracing air of heroism, after the 
depressing spectacle of Macbeth's decay. The true moral 
standard is boldly set up again by the rough hand of old 
Siward, as he praises his son's " fair " death. Heaven's 
" instruments " have re-established the sound order of things ; 
" the time is free ; " and now. neither burdened nor relaxed, 
but disciplined and awed, we emerge from the shadow of 
the great tragedy. 



Mr. Grant White combines the qualifications of a perfect editor of Shakespeare in large* 
proportion than any other with whose labors we are acquainted. He has an acuteness in 
tracing the finer fibres of thought icorthy of the keenest lawyer on the scent of a devious 
trail of circumstantial evidence ; he has a sincere desire to illustrate his author rather 
than himself ; he is a man of the world as well as a scholar ; he comprehends the mastery 
of imagination ; a critic of music, he appreciates the importance of rhythm as the higher 
mystery of versification. The sum of his qualifications is large, and his work is honorable 
to American letters. — James Russell Lowell. 



EDITED BY 

RICHARD GRANT WHITE. 

With Glossarial, Historical, and Explanatory Notes. 

In Six Volumes : I.-II. Comedies. III.-IV. Histories and 
Poems. V.-VI. Tragedies. 

Crown 8iro, cloth, $10.00; half calf, $18.00; half calf, gilt top, $19.00; 
half levant, $24.00. (Sold only in sets.) 

From Mr. W. Aldis Wright, of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, one of the Editors 
of the famous Cambridge Edition of Shakespeare. 
Mr. Grant White's name is a sufficient guarantee for the goodness of the text, and the 
aotes he has done wisely to make brief and few, so that the attention of the readers is 
directed to what the author wrote, and not to what others have written about him. 

From Harper's Monthly, December, 1883. 
His introductions are marvels of terseness, and yet contain everything that an intelli- 
gent reader cares to know ; his glossarial, historical, and explanatory notes are brief, 
luminous, and directly to the point ; his text is as perfect as the most industrious research 
and painstaking study could make it ; and the concise and excellent life of Shakespeare 
which he has prefixed to the first volume sets forth every fact that is really known with 
regard to the life, character, disposition, habits, and writings of the poet. By reason of 
its convenient size, its judicious arrangement, its thoroughly trustworthy text, and the 
wise reserve with which it has been edited and annotated, this serviceable edition deserves, 
above all other editions with which we are familiar, to be made the favorite companion 
Of the man of letters in his study, and of all readers of cultivated lii v taste in the 
seclusion of their libraries, or in their hours of leisure. 

From the New York Tribune. 
As an edition for general use, the Riverside Shakespeare must ta> 
the very front rank. . . . The notes are always brief, but they ar 
/ying. The editor's acquaintance with the literature and history 
and the materials from which he freely borrowed gives these f 
clearness, precision, and completeness. They are never pedantic 
the text. They make the Riverside Shakespeare, so far as the • 
probably the most comfortable of all editions to read. 

From the Liverpool Post. 
The first Shakespearean scholar in America is probably M' 
slai a thinker, a critic, a high aesthetic authority, a 



C^e iSfberst&e literature ^>erte& 

(Continued.) 
Each regular single number, paper, 15 cents. 

54. Bryant's Sella, Thanatopsis, and Other Poems.* 

55. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Thurber.* ** 

56. Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration, and the Oration on Adams 

and Jefferson. 

57. Dickens's Christmas Carol.** With Notes and a Biography. 

58. Dickens's Cricket on the Hearth.** 

59. Verse and Prose for Beginners in Reading.* 

60. 61. The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers. In two parts. J 

62. John Piske's War of Independence. With Maps and a Biograph- 

ical Sketch. § 

63. Longfellow's' Paul Revere's Ride, and Other Poems.** 

64. 65, 66. Tales from Shakespeare. Edited by Charles and Mary 

Lamb. In three parts. [Also, in one volume, linen, 50 cents.] 

67. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.* ** 

68. Goldsmith's Deserted Village, The Traveller, etc.* 

69. Hawthorne's Old Manse, and A Pew Mosses ** 

70. A Selection from Whittier's Child Life in Poetry.** 

71. A Selection from Whittier's Child Life in Prose.** 

72. Milton's L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, etc.** 

73. Tennyson's Enoch Arden, and Other Poems. 

74. Gray's Elegy, etc. ; Cowper's John Gilpin, etc. 

75. Scudder's George Washington. § 

76. Wordsworth's On the Intimations of Immortality, etc. 

77. Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night, and Other Poems. 

78. Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. § 

79. Lamb's Old China, and Other Essays of Elia. 

80. Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Other Poems ; 

Campbell's Lochiel's Warning, and Other Poems. 

Also, bound in linen : * 25 cents. ** 11 and 63 in one vol., 40 cents ; likewise 55 
and C7, 57 and 58, 40 and G9, 70 and 71, 72 and 94. % Also in one vol., 40 cents. 
§ Double Number, paper, 30 cents ; linen, 40 cents. 

EXTRA NUMBERS. 

A American Authors and their Birthdays. Programmes and Sugges- 
tions for the Celebration of the Birthdays of Authors. By A. S. Roe. 

B Portraits and Biographies of 20 American Authors. 

C A Longfellow Night. For Catholic Schools and Societies. 

D Literature in School. Essays by Horace E. Scudder. 

E Harriet Beecher Stowe. Dialogues and Scenes. 

F Longfellow Leaflets. (Each a Double Number, 30 cents ; linen, 

G Whittier Leaflets. 40 cents.) Poems and Prose Passages 

H Holmes Leaflets. for Reading and Recitation. 

O Lowell Leaflets. 

/ The Riverside Manual for Teachers, containing Suggestions and 
Illustrative Lessons leading up to Primary Reading. By I. F. Hall. 

K The Riverside Primer and Reader. (Special Number.) In paper 
covers, with cloth back, 25 cents ; in strong linen binding, 30 cents. 

L The Riverside Song Book. Containing Classic American Poems set 
to Standard Music. {Double Number, 30 cents ; boards, 40 cents.) 

M Lowell's Fable for Critics. (Double Number, 30 cents.) 



Cfie IStberst&e literature Series. 

(Continued 
Each regular single mm 
Recent Is 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

II 




81. Holmes's Autocrat of the Breal 

cents ; linen, 50 cents.) 

82. Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales. 

83. George Eliot's Silas Marner. § 014 106 797 7 

84. Dana's Two Years Before the Ml »/ / 

85. Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days. With an Introductory 

Sketch. §§ 

86. Scott's Ivanhoe. With a Biographical Sketch, and Notes. 



<S7. Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. With a Biographical Sketch, Notes, and 
a Map. §§ 

88. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. With an Introductory Sketch of Mrs. 

Stowe's Life and Career. §§ 

89. Swift's Gullivers Voyage to Lilliput. With an Introductory 

Sketch, Notes, and a Map.** 
<)0. Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to Brobdingnag. With Notes, and a 
Map.** 

91. Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables. With an Introductory 

Sketch. §§ 

92. Burroughs's A Bunch of Herbs, and Other Papers. With an 

Introductory Sketch, and Notes. 

93. Shakespeare's As You Like It. Edited by Richard Grant White, 

and furnished with Additional Notes.* ** 

94. Milton's Paradise Lost. Books I. -II I. With an Introduction, and 

Notes.** 

95. 96, 97, 98. Cooper's Last of the Mohicans. With an Introduction 

'by Susan Fenimore Cooper, a Biographical Sketch, and Notes. In four parts. 
(The four parts also bound in one volume, linen, bo cents.) 
99. Tennyson's Coming of Arthur, and Other Idylls of the King. 
With Introductions and Notes. 

100. Burke's Conciliation with the Colonies. Edited by Robert An- 

dersen, A. M. With an Introduction, and Notes.* 

101. Homer's Iliad. Books I., VI., XXII, and XXIV. Translated 

by Alexander Pope. With Introductions and Notes.* 

102. Macaulay's Essays on Johnson and Goldsmith. Edited by Wil- 

liam P. Trent. With Introductions and Notes.* 

103. Macaulay's Essay on Milton. Edited by William P. Trent. 

With an Introduction and Notes.* 

104. Macaulay's Life and Writings of Addison. Edited by William 

P. Trent. With an Introduction and Notes.* 

105. Carlyle's Essay on Burns. Edited by George R. No>y.es. With 

an Introduction and Notes.* 

106. Shakespeare's Macbeth. Edited by Richard Grant White, and 

furnished with Additional Notes by Helen Gray Cone.* * 
107 108, 109. Grimm's German Household Tales. With Notes. In three 

parts. {The three parts also bound in one volume, linen, 50 cents.) 
110. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Edited by William Vaughn Moody. 

With an Introduction and Notes. § 
Also, bound in linen : * 25 cents. ** 72 and 94 in one vol., 40 cents; likewise 89 
and 90, 93 and 106. § Double number, paper, 30 cents; linen, 40 cents. §§ Quadruple 
Number, paper, 50 cents ; linen, GO cents. 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 

4 Park Street, Boston; 11 East 17th Street, New York; 

ir»s Adams Street, Chicago. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

ll llll II III! 




014 106 797 7 # 



